ANAHEIM - Sean Manaea is hopeful his left shoulder injury isn't serious, but the A's likely won't have a full read on the starter's condition for a couple days.
As of Wednesday night, no MRI was scheduled after Manaea left after just two innings of an eventual 8-5 defeat to the Los Angeles Angels with tightness in his shoulder.
"I felt it a little bit in the bullpen," Manaea said. "I thought it was just one of those days where it took me longer to warm up, and that just wasn't the case. It's just really unfortunate."
Just as the A's are about to welcome Kendall Graveman back to the active roster Thursday, when he starts the series finale at Angel Stadium, and just as it appears Sonny Gray might be ready to come off the disabled list following one more rehab start, the A's are hoping they don't see Manaea subtracted from their rotation for any period of time.
Manager Bob Melvin said it was the top of Manaea's shoulder that was bothering him.
"The velo was down, and it didn't make sense to have him keep pitching," Melvin said. "But we won't know anything probably for a day or two, how he feels."
Once he started throwing in the game, Manaea said he felt "kind of a little sharp pain. I mean, it's nothing serious. I've dealt with it before and it only took me a few days to get back on the mound. To me, I'm not really worried about it."
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The pitcher added that he experienced a similar situation with his shoulder while a minor leaguer in Kansas City's organization, toward the end of spring training, and he missed minimal time.
Things didn't get better for the A's (10-11) after Manaea exited, as they struck out 13 times and played sloppy defensively in dropping their third in a row. Catcher Stephen Vogt couldn't handle Ryan Dull's glove flip to the plate on a seventh-inning squeeze play, ending a streak of six errorless games for Oakland, but Melvin can live with occasional physical misplays. More problematic were occasions when right fielder Matt Joyce and center fielder Jaff Decker both seemed caught by surprise to see Angels runners take off for an extra base. Whether it was a lack of communication from infielders or the outfielders themselves needing to be more aware, the A's can't afford those kinds of mistakes.
"As a group, we can't let that happen," Melvin said. "We talk about it in advance meetings the way these guys run the bases. It's not something we can do and expect to beat this team."
Added Vogt: "We were on our heels quite a bit. This was obviously not the prettiest baseball game we've played."
