Houston Astros’ Chas McCormick hits a home run in front of Oakland Athletics catcher Sean Murphy during the eighth inning at the Oakland Coliseum on Tue May 31, 2022 (AP News photo)

Houston. 3. 7. 0

Oakland. 8. 1

Tuesday May 31, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–One of the anomalies of this year’s version of the Oakland Athletics (20-32) is the difference between their performance on the road and what they do at home. The A’s are 7-19 at the Coliseum; behind the Chicago Cubs who just ahead of the A’s for the worst record at their home park at 8-17.

Tueday’s starting pitcher for the green and gold, Frankie Montás, is an anomaly within that anomaly. He took the mound dropped his record to 2-5, 3.20.

His opponent, Houston Astro starter Cristián Javier, also has fared better at home than when travelling. He’s now 3-2, 2.43 and was fantastic 0.38 in Arlington when facing the Texas Rangers.

In the end, Javier would escape with a no decision, Montás would throw seven beautiful innings and leave in the eighth, trailing 2-1. He took the loss in Oakland’s tough 3-1 defeat at the hands of the visitors in front of a crowd of 3,469 fans.

Tuesday’s confrontation began with confusion. Action was stopped for several minutes during Houston’s first at bat when Montás asked the umpires to verify the pitch count as shown on the scoreboard.

They decided that the scoreboard had it right. When the home team came to bat, Tony Kemp led off by depositing a fly ball on the running track just to the left of the right field foul line for a double.

The Curse of the Lead Off Double struck again, and Kemp died on second. The A’s, who seldom miss a chance to miss a chance, wasted Elvis Andrus’s one out stand up double to left in the second.

Andrus connected for another two bagger, taking a 79 mph slider into the left field seats on a bounce with two down in the bottom of the fourth with the score still tied at zero. This time, his effort wasn’t wasted. Sheldon Neuse followed him with a four pitch walk, and Cristián Pache’s single to center drove Andrus in with the game’s first run.

A 3-2 walk to Kemp loaded the bases and brought Jeff Lowrie to the plate with a relatively good chance to blow the game relatively open. It also gave him a chance to strand three runners, which is what he did, fouling out to first on a 2-2 count.

Yordán Alvarez opened the fifth with a single to short that seemed to have been deflected by Montás’s glove. A nifty catch by Pache of Yuri Gurriel’s drive to deep right center granted the A’s pitcher a momentary reprieve before Jeremy Peña lined a single to center to put runners on first and second.

Montás fanned Castro for the second out. Then Chas McCormick sent a single to left that scored Alvarez to tie the game.

But that wasn’t the end of the play. Everyone on base tried to advance, and Peña was thrown out in a rundown between third and home, leftfielder Luis Barrera to catcher Sean Murphy to second Tony Kemp to third Sheldon Neuse back to catcher Murphy to short Elvis Andrus who made the tag not your typical 7-2-4-5-2-6 put out if your scoring at home. That ended the inning.

Phil Maton relieved Javier in the top of the fifth. He had gone four frames and allowed one run, which was earned, on four hits and walks, striking out three. His pitch count was 85, and 47 qualified as strikes.

Oakland quickly jumped on Maton with a single to right by Ramon Laureano and a double to the same field by Seth Brown that sent the base runner to third. But Murphy smacked a grounder to third, and Laureano was cut down at the plate.

Barrera flew out to left center, bringing Andrus, who had gone two for two, to the plate. His fly out to left center closed the inning, and the A’s lost a golden opportunity to regain their brief and slender lead.

Montás retired the Astros to a conga beat (i.e., 1-2-3) in the sixth.

The Athletics faced Ryne Stanek in the home half of that stanza and achieved only a walk and a stolen base by Neuse.

Montás began to show signs of tiring when he had completed 6-1/3 innings of work. Yordan Alvarez and Guriel smacked solid singles, putting runners on first and second. The Peña hit a double play ball that Neuse, moving to his left, bobbled, loading the bases with ´stros. But, tired or not, Montás kept his cool and got Castro to hit into an inning ending 4-6-3 twin killing.

It was Rafael Montero’s turn to face the A’s in the seventh. All the Oaklanders could manage against him was a lead off single to right by Laureano, who seems at last to be hitting his stride.

Chas McCormick drove Montás from the box before he could get an out in the eighth. His blast to straight away center field, over the 400 foot sign, carried 422 feet and came on 97 mph fastball, Montás’s 98th offering of the night. He left, having yielded two runs, both earned, on seven hits and not a single walk, having struck out five. He deserved a better fate.

Zach Jackson was his replacement. He issued free passes to Jose Siri, Jose Altuve, and Michael Brantley, with a gratuitous wild pitch to Altuve thrown into the bargain. It looked as though home plate umpire Manny González was squeezing Jackson on some of his pitches to Brantley.

But there was no doubting his calls on his fourth straight walk, which allowed Siri to stroll home with Houston’s third tally. That was it for Jackson, and it was Sam Moll who had to face Alvarez with the bases still loaded and no outs.

The lefty came through, retiring Alvarez on a foul to third and getting Gurriel to go down swinging before Jeremy Peña grounded into a third to second force out to keep the A’s in the game. Moll, too, stayed in the game, pitching to one man, Jason Castro, and striking him out looking.

Héctor Neris was Houston’s fourth reliever in as many innings. He retired the side in order, notching two strikeouts in the process.

Lou Trivino took over for Moll and looked sharp mixing his fast ball and a curve to strike out McCormick. He mixed his pitches well against Siri, who also went down swinging.

Ryan Pressly, looking for his ninth save in 11 opportunities, faced the top of the Oakland batting order in the last chance ninth. Kemp lined a solid single to right, making him two for four for the night. Jed Lowrie flew out to left center. Laureano fell behind 0-2 quickly and just as quickly bounced into a game ending 6-4-3 double play. Time of game 3:23.

The win went to Montero, now 3-0 ,0.44. Pressley was credited with the save and brought his ERA down to 2.25. On Wednesday it will be Justin Verlander (6-2, 2.03) for the Astros against A’s starter Cole Irvin (2-2, 3.15) to wind up the series tomorrow at 12:37.