Castro has 4 hits, but laments missed catch

OAKLAND -- There aren’t many players who have enjoyed a four-hit game less than Harold Castro did Saturday.

The Tigers’ center fielder singled in his first four at-bats before striking out his final time up. The second of the hits came with the bases loaded and gave the Tigers a two-run lead in the second inning. The strikeout proved to be the game’s final out, as the Oakland A’s scored the final 10 runs of the game for a one-sided 10-2 win at the Coliseum.

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In between, the fleet and sure-handed Castro was in the middle of the play that broke the Tigers’ backs. After the A’s rallied to move into a 3-2 lead in the fourth inning, Marcus Semien drove a ball to deep right-center with two men on and two out.

“I saw it and I thought I had it,” Castro said.

Castro retreated quickly, but on a windy night, it was not quickly enough. Semien’s ball got over Castro’s glove for a two-run triple, and suddenly the A’s had some daylight, up 5-3.

“We probably should have caught that ball and been out of the inning,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “It wasn’t an easy play, but normally Castro would make that play. It ended up costing us four in that inning. And then it kind of got ugly after that.”

The wind was in play all night, beginning with the first inning, when an obvious foul ball behind third base was blown into fair territory with one out and two on. Third baseman Matt Chapman couldn't make the play, and the ball dropped in play near the bag. Semien closed in on the ball and started a quick double play, and what could have been a big inning had evaporated.

Castro’s two-run single in the second would then be the end of the Tigers’ offense as Detroit struck out 19 times, one shy of the club’s season-worst for a nine-inning game. But it wasn’t the strikeout but the failure to grab Semien’s ball that bothered Castro the most.

“The wind was blowing out and I didn’t catch it,” Castro said. “I thought I was going to get it, but it curved more [than he expected]. The four hits is good, but you go out to help your team. I did well, but we’re still losing.”

Tigers starter Jordan Zimmermann came into the game with a 2.45 ERA in his previous four starts, and with the Tigers’ bullpen having thrown 11 1/3 innings on Friday, Detroit was hoping he could get deep into the game. Semien’s triple wasn’t the only reason he didn’t, but it didn’t help as he struggled to get through five innings.

“It was one of those games,” Zimmermann said. “The wind had a little bit to do with it. Off the bat, I was thinking ‘routine fly ball,’ and I guess the wind took it and it kept going a little bit.”

With the Tigers’ bullpen having to pitch the final couple of innings of the completion of a game suspended on May 19 early Friday and Spencer Turnbull having lasted just 1 2/3 innings in the regularly scheduled Friday game, which went 11 innings, fresh arms were in short supply for Detroit.

Lefty Matt Hall gave up three runs in the sixth, two of them on Matt Olson’s fourth hit, a bases-loaded single. And Zac Reininger was touched for the A’s third homer, a Chapman solo shot in the eighth.