By Morris Phillips

Unlike Saturday’s effort, the A’s were present and accounted for on Sunday, battling the Astros with an early lead, rallying to tie when they fell behind, and then taking the lead in the middle innings, leaving them needing only a couple key outs in the ninth to close to the deal.

Along the way, the passion was evident from the players, manager Bob Melvin–who was tossed by home plate umpire Quinn Wolcott–as well as the fans, who found little to boo–as they did Saturday–and a whole lot to cheer.

But in the end, the result—a fourth consecutive loss, 7-6, when Houston’s Evan Gattis delivered a game-winning, two run single in the ninth—was the same.

Could this be the enduring story of the 2015 A’s: possessing the will, but not the means to win?

After all the upheaval in the off-season, and now the mounting toll on the injury front, it sure looks like it.  A much calmer, but tight-lipped Melvin spoke after the game, and he seemed to be saying as much.

“We did a lot of good things right today,” Melvin said.  “We’re doing just enough to lose games right now depending on which facet of the game.  Again, we had another error that cost us.  We had some big hits today.  We had some good plays, we had some good bullpen contributions today.  We were just literally one pitch away today.”

“We’re just a little short.  It’s been that way for a bit here now.”

The A’s struck early, pushing across a pair of runs in the second off Astros’ starter Asher Wojciehowski.  But the good feeling didn’t last: Wolcott’s interpretations of some pitches were head scratchers, and A’s starter Drew Pomeranz saw things go south once he was hit by a batted ball on his hip.

Accordingly, the A’s lead evaporated in the third and fourth innings, and Melvin was tossed, having had enough of Wolcott’s missed calls.

“Some other guys were saying something, I think on both sides, but maybe (Wolcott) thought I was a little more demonstrative than anybody else.  He’s thrown me out before for that,” Melvin said, referencing a previous Wolcott ejection last season.

For a while after the ejection, demonstrative was good.  Melvin’s good old-fashioned show seemed to fire up his team.  The A’s rallied right back with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game, 5-5.  Then in the seventh, Marcus Semien came up with a big hit, and the A’s had the lead again.

But in the ninth, the A’s depleted bullpen—minus injured closer Sean Doolittle—and leaky defense gave it all away.

Adding frustration to the loss was Gattis’ awkward, tomahawk swing on Tyler Clippard’s 1-2 pitch with two outs in the ninth that produced the game-winning runs.  Clippard’s pitch was well above the strike zone and should have garnered a game-ending swing and miss, or a pop-up, but Gattis went with it, and sent it deep to center field.  Gattis’ swing probably fooled centerfielder Sam Fuld, who initially broke in, only to see the ball one hop the wall behind him.

“Most of us are taught not to hit those pitches, but it’s a weakness of mine,” Gattis said.

The Astros earned the three-game sweep on Sunday, and lead the AL West with an 11-7 record, four games better than the A’s.  So things aren’t dire for Oakland—it is still April–but the numbers are hard to swallow.

The A’s still haven’t won a day game this season (0-8).  They also haven’t won a game decided by two runs or less, and in the same vein, the bullpen leads the major leagues with six losses already.

And just before Gattis’ hit gave the Astros’ the lead, third baseman Brett Lawrie committed the A’s major-league leading, 20^th error when he not-so-smartly attempted to throw out the lead runner at second base on a chopper that robbed his throw of any momentum as he had to rush towards home plate to field.

Bad decisions, poor execution and another loss.  How about a day to regroup, Bob Melvin?

“There some other teams I think have had three days off already,” Melvin said.  “We need a day off.”

The A’s next take the field at the Coliseum on Tuesday when the Angels visit and Jered Weaver gets the ball for Anaheim at 7:05pm.