ANAHEIM — Chris Smith continues to draw praise off the field for his sage-like advice to the A’s younger pitchers.
It hasn’t been going quite so smoothly on the field. The 36-year-old veteran got knocked around for five runs in the first inning Tuesday night, and that was a hole the A’s couldn’t escape from in an 8-2 defeat to the Los Angeles Angels.
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C.J. Cron did the big damage with a three-run homer in that early barrage, one of two home runs the first baseman blasted off Oakland pitching.
Smith lasted just 3 2/3 innings and was charged with seven runs (six earned). He also allowed Martin Maldonado’s solo blast in the fourth. The right-hander was a terrific story when he entered the A’s rotation in early July, becoming the oldest A’s pitcher to ever make his first major league start and completing a career odyssey that included a brief retirement and a stint in independent league ball.
But the long ball has been his Achilles heel. Smith (0-4) has allowed 13 homers in nine outings (eight starts) with the A’s this season. His ERA has risen from 2.77 on July 18 to its current 6.27.
TIMETABLE UNCERTAIN FOR BLACKBURN: The right hand injury to Paul Blackburn is one reason Smith has remained in the rotation despite his struggles. An MRI on Blackburn’s hand Monday revealed no fracture, but A’s manager Bob Melvin said there’s no timetable for when Blackburn will start throwing.
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“He’s just doing strengthening stuff right now, plyometric stuff,” Melvin said. “Obviously the farther out we go without him throwing, the more extensive it will be getting him back. That’s where it is right now.”
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE … Matt Olson homered in the second, his 10th on the season. Along with Matt Chapman and Chad Pinder, the A’s have three rookies with 10-plus homers for only the second time in their Oakland history. Wayne Gross, Mitchell Page and Tony Armas did it in 1977.
MILESTONE FOR JOYCE: Matt Joyce also went deep in the second, as the A’s showed some life to trim a 5-0 deficit to 5-2. It was Joyce’s 20th homer, his first time reaching that milestone in 10 major league seasons.
TROUT-FREE ZONE: The Angels have taken the first two of this three-game series despite MVP candidate Mike Trout missing both games with a sore neck after a collision with the outfield wall. Trout is expected to return Wednesday night.
SOME UNWANTED HISTORY: The A’s broke the franchise record with their 73rd wild pitch in Monday night’s defeat. That’s not the way manager Bob Melvin wants his team to carve out a spot in the record books. But Melvin, a former catcher, doesn’t think his pitchers should shoulder 100 percent of the responsibility for this stat.
“You don’t want to give up extra bases like that,” he said. “I think there’s been some times maybe with some breaking balls that we’ve tried to pick some balls as opposed to blocking them, here recently too. It’s not just the pitchers. You have to feel like, at least on a breaking ball, every time a breaking ball is in the dirt it’s your job to block it. So it definitely is shared.”