Athletics beat Mets, rough up Jacob deGrom

OAKLAND — The Athletics dealt the New York Mets a costly loss in a pennant race Saturday and did it against star right-handed pitcher Jacob deGrom.

The Athletics gave deGrom a harder time than he’d seen in his previous nine starts and parlayed clutch hitting and solid defense for a 10-4 win at the at the Coliseum.

The Athletics improved to 56-96 before a crowd of 16,041, many of them Mets fans. New York, which began the day with a 2 1/2-game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the National League East, fell to 96-57.

By the time he was finished after four innings, deGrom (5-3) trailed 5-4 and surrendered season highs in hits (six), earned runs (five) and walks (four). He struck out five and threw 80 pitches, 49 for strikes, giving way to Trevor Williams to start the sixth inning.

In his previous start, deGrom become the only major league pitcher to strike out 13 batters with no walks in five innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Ken Waldichuck (1-2) made it through the fifth and got his first big league win before Austin Pruitt took over. He gave up five hits, four earned runs with no walks and four strikeouts.

While the A’s were able to add on five runs against the New York bullpen after deGrom’s exit, A’s relievers Pruitt (two innings), A.J. Puk and Tyler Cyr blanked the Mets over the final four innings.

The Athletics had home runs by Seth Brown, his 24th, and Connor Capel, his second. Capel had a homer, triple and single in his last three at-bats. For the Mets, Pete Alonso hit his 38th home run of the season, with Mark Vientos getting his first career home run.

A two-out ground ball single up the middle by Brown in the sixth against Joely Rodriguez brought home Vimael Machin and gave the Athletics a 7-4 lead. In the bottom of the seventh, Nick Allen bounced a single to right to score Capel, who tripled to open the inning against Adam Ottavino.

Capel’s home run, his first with the A’s,  gave Oakland a 6-4 lead in the fifth and came against Williams. His two-run single in the eighth against Trevor May brought in the last two insurance runs.

Vientos tied the score 4-4 in the second with his first career home run, an opposite field shot against Waldichuck, with the Athletics regaining the lead in the third on Brown’s home run to dead center field against deGrom.

The Athletics, down three to deGrom after the top of the first, managed put four on the board in the bottom of the inning as the Mets’ right-hander struggled with his control. Machin hit a one-out single, followed by walks to Sean Murphy and Brown.

Dermis Garcia hit a solid liner to left, with outfielder Jeff McNeil stumbling as the ball whizzed over his head for a two-run double.  Garcia eventually scored on an infield grounder by Capel to tie the score 3-3. A double to left by catcher Shea Langeliers put the A’s up 4-3.

The Mets got three quick ones off Waldichuk in the first, with Francisco Lindor hitting a sacrifice fly and Alonso driving a 410-foot  two-run home run to deep left.

Jerry McDonald has been with the Bay Area News Group for 40 years covering the NFL and Major League Baseball as well as college and high school sports.