Oakland Athletics Make Managerial Change
By Fred Guzman
A change in managers didn’t have the desired immediate impact on the struggling Oakland Athletics that the team’s general manager, Billy Beane, had hoped for.
In their first game since Bob Geren was given the axe, the A’s suffered their 10th straight loss, falling 9-4 to the Chicago White Sox yesterday under interim skipper Bob Melvin.
Catcher Kurt Suzuki did his part in trying to pull Oakland out its prolonged skid, going 2-for-4 and scoring a pair of runs.
Their current slump has dropped Oakland’s record to 27-37, leaving the A’s in the AL West cellar, eight games behind the division-leading Texas Rangers.
Meantime, the Philadelphia Phillies were victimized by an error in the top of the 11th inning in a 4-3 loss to the Chicago Cubs.
Geovany Soto hit a tying homer off Ryan Madson with one out in the ninth and Tyler Colvin scored the winning run from second on third baseman Placido Polanco’s throwing error.
Colvin’s apparent tie-breaking homer in the ninth was overturned by umpires after replays showed a fan wearing a Phillies T-shirt reached over the fence and interfered with the ball.
Center fielder Shane Victorino went 1-for-4 for the Phillies, who lead the NL East by two games over Atlanta.