Tyler Soderstrom

Lawrence Butler went 1-for-3 with a single and a walk as the Athletics were shut out by José Berríos and the Blue Jays on Thursday evening.

As a team, the A’s were only able to muster four total hits and two walks in the contest — with Butler the only member of their offense to reach base twice. He also struck out twice in the ballgame. On the season, he’s hitting a disappointing .249/.307/.441 with eight homers, 23 RBI and eight stolen bases through his first 231 plate appearances.

Jacob Lopez was absolutely obliterated in Thursday night’s loss to the Blue Jays, giving up seven runs on six hits in just 1 2/3 innings of work.

Oof. The 27-year-old left-hander walked a batter and didn’t record a strikeout in the miserable performance. All of the damage done against him came in the second inning, including home runs off the bats of Ernie Clement and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Lopez got just two swings and misses on 43 pitches on the night, posting a miserable CSW of 21 percent. He’s now 0-3 with a 6.32 ERA, 1.85 WHIP and a 17/9 K/BB ratio over 15 2/3 innings in six appearances (three starts) with the A’s this season. It remains to be seen if he’ll draw another start on Tuesday against the Twins, or if he’ll head back to Triple-A Las Vegas for more seasoning.

JJ Bleday went 4-for-5 with a double, a stolen base, one RBI, and a run scored for Triple-A Las Vegas on Wednesday.

Bleday is now 6-for-9 with a home run, a steal, and three RBI in his two minor league games. Meanwhile, Denzel Clarke struck out four times on Wednesday and has 13 strikeouts in 17 MLB plate appearances. It seems likely that we see Bleday back up for Clarke in the next few weeks.

Spencer Horwitz went 2-for-4 and drove in a run as the Pirates fell to the Cubs on Sunday afternoon at Wrigley Field.

Horwitz opened the scoring in the top half of the first inning with an RBI single off of right-hander Colin Rea. He also singled with two outs in the sixth inning but the Pirates were unable to cash him in. With his two-hit attack, the 27-year-old first baseman is now hitting .227/.299/.330 with one long ball and seven RBI.

Nolan Schanuel went 2-for-4 with a solo home run against the Orioles on Sunday.

Willson Contreras homered and was hit by a pitch Saturday in an eventful game against the Brewers.

The Brewers targeted Contreras after what must have been a brain fart caused him to back into the running lane while Caleb Durbin was coming down the line. The 5-foot-7 Durbin ran into Contreras’s backside and went flying, but he wasn’t seriously hurt and was able to stay in the game. It also probably didn’t help that Rhys Hoskins was hit by a pitch afterwards. Jose Quintana plunked Contreras in the upper arm in his next at-bat, at which point Contreras, who seemed fine with the whole thing, retrieved the ball and handed it back to the pitcher. Also fun: both William and Willson wound up trading solo homers in the ninth inning today, making it the first time the brothers have homered in the same game.