Barber: A's win bullpen battle to even Bay Bridge Series

SAN FRANCISCO - They had some trouble throwing the ball at AT&T Park on Saturday night. I mean, they could get the ball to leave their hands, as humans usually do. But no one seemed sure where it would end up. Either the ballpark had been cursed, or the arms doing the throwing just weren't very good.

It didn't matter which uniform they were wearing, either. Giants black or A's green, the throws were ineffective or JaMarcus Russell-level inaccurate for the first four innings of Oakland's 4-3 victory.

It was true in the field. The A's scored their first run in the top of the second inning on a shallow fly to right field off the bat of Josh Phegley; SF's Andrew McCutchen ran up to glove it and had a relatively short throw home, but his line was crooked and Oakland's Matt Chapman scored easily. The A's returned the favor in the bottom of the second when Alen Hanson grounded a single between shortstop and third base, and Oakland left fielder Khris Davis demonstrated why he normally DHs, with a tepid soft toss to Chapman, his relay man, that allowed Steven Duggar to score easily from second base.

Giants catcher Buster Posey even contributed to the arms disgrace. He had a chance to gun down the A's Stephen Piscotty at third base in the third inning and, you know, threw the ball to a place other than Chase d'Arnaud's glove.

But it's the arms attached to pitchers' shoulder joints that matter most, and they were the real problem in the first half of this game.

Oakland's starter was Brett Anderson, who struggled early in the year and only recently came back from a strained shoulder.

Before the game, A's manager Bob Melvin had this to say about Anderson: “We don't expect him to pitch seven or eight innings. It'd be nice, because we've had some short starts this year. If we can get five or six good innings out of him today, we'll be in a good spot. … I don't know if he's a 105-pitch guy tonight, but if he can leave with the lead, I think we'll be in good shape.”

Not exactly a ringing endorsement, and it proved overly optimistic. Anderson went just 3? innings and threw 54 pitches before Melvin gave him the yank. Anderson's season ERA is at 6.08. And he didn't get the lead that Melvin had wanted. The Giants were up 3-2 when Yusmeiro Petit entered the game for Oakland.

San Francisco might have been headed to an easy victory, except that its starter, Jeff Samardzija, wasn't doing much better. Samardzija invented a game called Don't Let the Ball Touch the Ground, and he can retire as its all-time greatest player. The veteran right-hander pitched four innings Saturday and didn't get a single groundout. Not one. He gave up three hits, walked two batters, plunked a guy, struck out one and relied on his fielders for no fewer than 11 fly outs - many of them hissing line drives or deep flies that barely stayed in the field of play. It was The Shark's Adventure.

Samardzija's four innings might have outdone Anderson's 3?, but they do not qualify as a “quality start.” The starters were early departers.

At this point I began to develop a theory of electromagnetic forces that were pulling the ball astray in the chilly winds of China Basin. But the final five innings of the game put this theory to rest, because the relief pitchers wound up being much more accurate than the rotation guys.

The Athletics' Petit gave up two hits in the first three batters he faced, but he settled down and provided Melvin with exactly what he needed - a few scoreless frames. Petit went 2? innings and, unlike Anderson, left with a lead.

That left the seventh and eighth innings to Lou Trivino, and the ninth to All-Star closer Blake Treinen. You're in pretty bad shape if your strategy is to stage a comeback against these two.

“Lefties, righties - doesn't matter,” Melvin said of his back-end relievers. “And Trivino has made us who we are. I mean, Blake's been terrific all year at the end. (Ryan) Buchter's been good, even though he got hurt. But when we got Trivino, and put him in that eighth-inning role, it's been a different bullpen since. And he's able to go two innings, too. He's a killer out there.”

Melvin's praise for Petit, who spent four years with the Giants, was even more lavish.

“He's as versatile a reliever as I've ever had,” the manager said. “I mean, really. The Giants, anyone he's ever been with. He can pitch the eighth inning for you. He gets left-handers out. He can give three, four, five innings in the middle of a game, he can spot-start. That was a significant pickup for us. I had him earlier in his career, in Arizona. He's pitched the last few years as well as he ever has in his entire career.

“Not only does he allow you to shorten the game, but he's a tough character on the mound, too. He's not throwing 98 (miles per hour) like those other guys are, but he gets outs in a different way.”

The Giants didn't get a hit over the final five innings of the game.

With one major exception, the SF bullpen was just as rugged on Saturday. Look what Derek Holland did. He is sort of Bochy's current version of Petit, a pitcher who can adapt to any role asked of him. Against the A's, Holland replaced Samardzija to start the fifth inning and struck out three consecutive batters. He started the sixth with two more Ks.

These happened to be the first five hitters in the A's potent lineup: Marcus Semien, Piscotty, Matt Olson, Davis and Chapman. Whiff, whiff, whiff, caught looking and caught looking. Holland threw two innings and allowed just one base runner.

A little later, rookie Ray Black came in to face two batters. Two sluggers, actually - Davis and Chapman. He struck them both out. Mark Melancon pitched a scoreless eighth; Ty Blach did the same in the ninth.

There was just that one exception to the Great Parade of Relievers, and it was a biggie. Tony Watson, the Giants' best bullpen arm for most of this season, was a wreck.

He replaced Holland to start the seventh inning and surrendered, in order, a single to Josh Phegley, a mashed home run by Mark Canha, a single to Semien and a walk to Piscotty. He exited with the loss after finally getting an out.

Watson has been so good in 2018, but that's his second consecutive bum outing. What can Giants manager Bruce Bochy do with him? Easy, judging by what we witnessed Saturday. Bochy needs to make Watson a starter, where he won't mess up this otherwise-fantastic relief work.