The A’s saw their 3-game win streak snapped on Saturday afternoon at Sutter Health Park, falling to the AL-worst Chicago White Sox 10-3 and dropping below .500 again. The A’s can still take the series with a win in tomorrow’s finale.

Early struggles for Springs (again)

Left-handed pitcher Jeffrey Springs was acquired this offseason from the Tampa Bay Rays to help stabilize the starting rotation. The hope was that he could be a mid-rotation arm with upside to be a potential #2 but instead the 32-year old has struggled in his short time with the Athletics. He entered today with a 5.64 ERA through five starts. He’s been hit hard especially early in games and that trend continued today against a weak White Sox lineup.

The day started well enough as a strikeout got this game going. The next batter was Luis Robert Jr. and he whacked his third home run of the year off Springs but that wasn’t the end of it. Chicago would touch Springs up for three more runs in the first inning off a walk and back-to-back-to-back doubles. The White Sox scored two more runs the next inning with the help of an error from third baseman Gio Urshela but Springs did a poor job mitigating the damage there.

Once he was past the second inning it was like a switch was flicked and he began looking like the pitcher the A’s expected when they traded for him. Springs sat down the side in order in each of the next three frames while collecting three strikeouts. While Chicago did manage to tag him for one more run in the sixth, he managed to finish six full innings of work today bouncing back from another rough start to provide some depth and save the bullpen.

• Jeffrey Springs: 6 IP, 7 H, 7 R (5 ER), 2 BB, 4 K, 1 HR, 100 pitches

Again with this guy. Springs just can not for the life of him get off to a good start. He’s been terrific in his starts after the first two innings as he’s allowed just two runs between the third and sixth innings in all of his starts combined entering today. The problem is his first inning ERA stands at an unimaginable 16.50 and his second inning mark is a better but still dreadful 9.00. There isn’t really anything the Athletics can do except let Springs try to figure it out but if this continues for much longer the team will need to consider their options, whether that be deploying an opener for him or perhaps something more drastic like a demotion to the bullpen. His next start lines up to be at the Texas Rangers on May 1st.

Offense struggles against opener/bulk combo

For the second day in a row the White Sox threw the A’s a curveball and switched their pitching plans up at the last moment. Taking the ball to open the game for Chicago was lefty Tyler Gilbert, who did the same for his squad in last night’s contest. Following him after a clean first frame was righty Jonathan Cannon and combined with Gilbert they kept the A’s from getting anything going, allowing just a walk and single through the first three frames.

They did manage to piece together a run against Cannon during his third inning of work. A leadoff double from Brent Rooker and a productive out from Tyler Soderstrom put the A’s potential first run just ninety feet away and Miguel Andujar did not let the scoring opportunity go to waste with an RBI groundout:

That put the A’s on the board but they were still looking up at a five-run deficit. They had a couple small chances to chip into the Chicago lead but came up empty handed each time. Cannon was dominant today and he caught an A’s team that was flat-footed and unprepared.

Once Springs’ day was over it was Rule 5 pick Noah Murdock who came on in relief first. The young pitcher has struggled hard in his first taste of the big leagues and that continued today as he walked the first three batters he faced and ultimately gave up three runs. That not only put this game firmly out of reach for the team but also shot his season ERA up from 9.75 to 11.08 in just 13 innings of work. A clean eighth lowered his ERA down to 10.29 but it’s fair to begin wondering whether or not Murdock will stick with the big league club all year. If not, the A’s would have to return him to the Kansas City Royals. The team can’t just keep sending him out if he’s getting hammered like this so he needs to figure it out sooner than later. Right-hander Grant Holman finished pitching off for the A’s with a clean top of the ninth.

The A’s managed to tack on a second run against Cannon in the eighth when second baseman Luis Urias swatted his third home run of the year in the bottom of the frame:

By that point though it was far too little too late. The team added on their third run of the game against Cannon in the ninth thanks to an Andujar triple and Nick Kurtz 2-out RBI single. That finally chased Cannon from the game but Urshela couldn’t keep the line moving and grounded out to mercifully end this blowout.

Dang. That wasn’t good. Springs’ early struggles continued and that ultimately sank the A’s today and snapped their small win streak. The offense didn’t do much against Cannon outside of a couple hits here and there and a Luis Urias bomb. Murdock continues to struggle out of the bullpen and his leash has got to start feeling shorter and shorter. The team falls below the .500 mark again and will finish the day firmly in fourth place in the AL West.

The team can still win the series tomorrow with a bounce back performance in the series and home stand finale. The Athletics will turn to right-hander Osvaldo Bido to get the A’s over the hump and back to .500 while Chicago is “scheduled” to send righty Davis Martin to the mound. We’ll see if they actually go with their scheduled starter or pull what they did all weekend again by changing to an opener/bulk method at the last possible moment. Either way, tomorrow’s going to be critical and a win would do wonders for the team before starting the road trip.