Even in loss, Kaprielian shows poise, promise

When James Kaprielian entered the starting rotation several weeks ago, it was out of necessity. With multiple arms down, someone needed to help eat innings. Oakland just needed to get by.

Given how well the rookie has pitched, he’s earned some staying power.

Kaprielian grinded through five solid innings in the A’s 3-1 loss to the Rockies on Sunday at Coors Field, allowing two runs and striking out six. Manager Bob Melvin expressed satisfaction with the rookie’s start, especially given the venue, but Kaprielian’s self-assessment featured a critical tone.

“That’s on me. I've gotta do a better job and be able to give the guys in the bullpen a day, too,” Kaprielian said. “I've got to be better.”

Like Cole Irvin on Saturday, Kaprielian learned that breaking pitches are less effective in Denver due to the altitude. As a result, Kaprielian primarily stuck with the fastball, leading to good results under the circumstances. Kaprielian threw 47 four-seamers, accounting for about half of all his pitches.

“All my stuff felt a little different today, to be honest,” Kaprielian said. “I hate to use that as an excuse because, at the end of the day, this is me being able to make the adjustments on the mound, getting to the next pitch. I didn’t do a good enough job of that.”

Kaprielian showed off some impressive poise in the fourth inning when the Rockies loaded the bases with no outs, appearing primed to put up a crooked number. It was a similar scenario to Kaprielian’s last start against the Mariners, when he couldn’t get out of the fourth inning and was ultimately tagged for four runs.

This time around, he lived to pitch another inning, minimizing the damage to one run that came on a sacrifice fly. Kaprielian ended his afternoon with his best inning, striking out Charlie Blackmon and Ryan McMahon looking to end the fifth.

“When you’re in those situations, you just want to minimize and keep things small,” Kaprielian said. “ When teams are able to pile up runs, that’s when the games become a little bit farther out of reach than we want. Obviously, you’d like to get out of there with no runs [allowed], but one’s not gonna usually kill us.”

While Kaprielian kept the A’s in the ballgame, he was stuck with the tough-luck loss on an afternoon where Oakland’s bats were uncharacteristically quiet. Coming into Sunday, the A’s had averaged 7.6 runs during this road trip.

The lack of runs wasn’t due to a lack of opportunities.

In the third, fifth, eighth and ninth innings, the leadoff man reached base with a single. The A’s didn’t score in any of those frames. In the sixth, the one inning the A’s did score, Sean Murphy stood on second after driving in Tony Kemp with a double, but was left stranded. In the seventh, the A’s put runners on first and third with one out. They didn’t score.

In all, Oakland left eight runners on base and struck out 11 times.

“He’s got a quick arm. The fastball gets on you a little quicker than you think. He’s got a really good slider and curveball that he can use whenever he wants to,” Melvin said of Colorado starter Germán Márquez, who allowed one run across six innings. “We got him out of the game a little earlier than we normally do with him, but he pitched well and kept us down.”

The A’s couldn’t have asked for much more out of Kaprielian since he made his season debut on May 12 at Fenway Park.

Through five starts, Kaprielian has a 3.08 ERA with 28 strikeouts across 26 1/3 innings. Oakland’s starting pitchers have thrown more innings than any other club this season, and with several arms having missed time, Kaprielian has been a source of quality innings.

That includes Sunday. Kaprielian was not completely satisfied with his start against the Rockies, but given the circumstances, it was an outing to build upon.

“In this place, I'll take it,” Melvin said.