By Morris Phillips

The A’s ninth consecutive loss on the road didn’t look much different from their eighth. Staked to an early, 1-0 lead, the Oakland starting pitcher needed to be perfect, but wasn’t, losing 2-1 to the Reds on Friday night and again on Saturday afternoon.

But there was one significant difference between the ballgames: Houston native Daniel Mengden, making his first major league appearance as the A’s starting pitcher, looked resplendent with his Rollie Fingers-like, handlebar mustache.

So much for the ever-present battle of style over substance. The A’s haven’t displayed much substance lately, losing their last seven ballgames while scoring just 15 runs total. That’s two runs or fewer in five of those seven contests.

Only five big-league clubs have faced a right-handed starting pitcher more frequently than the A’s (48 times) and there’s a reason. The A’s just don’t matchup against righties, ranking second-worst in the AL by a Bill James-created stat that quantifies a team’s offensive value. Less complicated is the fact that Oakland lost for the 30^th time when facing a right-handed starter on Saturday, only the Twins have lost more (34 times) in that situation.

What’s worse, Saturday’s right-handed starter, the Reds’ Dan Straily, is a familiar face, having made 41 starts for Oakland from 2012-2014. Since then, Straily has bounced around, making 15 starts for the Reds, Cubs and Astros, but winning just four times. Of course that fourth win came against the A’s, as Straily was efficient on Saturday, going seven innings, allowing five hits and a run.

After Danny Valencia knocked in Coco Crisp to give the A’s the early 1-0 lead, Straily retired nine straight batters (with five strikeouts) before the A’s mounted a rally in the fourth. But with the bases loaded and two outs, center fielder Tyler Holt made a diving catch on a ball in front of him, to retire Billy Burns and end the inning.

Like Straily, Mengden made the fast track to the big leagues, having not pitched above AA before his major league-debut on Saturday. The Texas A&M product was distinctive not just for his mustache, but his exaggerated windup with the leg kick and his arms above his ahead before the release. All the newfangled stuff appeared to work, but Mengden fell in trouble in the third, walking Joey Votto ahead of Jay Bruce’s long two-run shot.

It was Bruce’s 14^th homer of the year, but his sixth in the last two weeks.

The A’s look to avoid the sweep on Sunday with Kendall Graveman facing the Reds’ John Lamb at 10:10 PST.