By Morris Phillips

OAKLAND–When you’re an All-Star, your manager might gift you with a longer leash.

That thinking, if employed, didn’t work Sunday for Mark Kotsay and Paul Blackburn.

Blackburn, fresh off being an All-Star and the invigorating experience he had during the days of the break, was roughed up at the Coliseum on Sunday in his first pitching appearance since. The right-hander allowed ten earned runs and departed in the fifth inning. That probably was a longer stint than Blackburn deserved.

“The first couple of innings I felt like I was just too quick and then I tried to slow down, and I felt like I was too slow,” Blackburn said. “I tried to find a happy medium to get in a rhythm out there, and it just didn’t happen.”

“I haven’t had a chance to talk with Paul, but what I saw was that he’s fighting himself with his mechanics,” Kotsay said.

The ten runs allowed ties the most generous pitching outing of the season in the majors. Had Kotsay come and removed Blackburn an inning earlier the A’s stirring comeback may have stood up. The A’s scored seven runs in the eighth and ninth innings, only to lose 11-8.

While Blackburn was quite hittable, Martin Perez was not, picking up his eighth consecutive win. Perez has now gone 17 consecutive starts this season without suffering a loss, establishing a new, Texas franchise record, surpassing the 16 Kyle Gibson put up in 2021.

“I’m just looking to feel comfortable every time when I go out there,” Perez said. “How I believe in myself now–I know who I am and what I can do on the mound–is great.”

Perez pitched seven innings, allowing four hits and a run while striking out six. When he departed, the Rangers led 11-1. Then things got interesting.

The A’s clearly in the midst of their best stretch of dismal season, winning nine of 16, made a move. Garrett Richards came on and gave up a two-run double to Chad Pinder. After Tony Kemp’s groundout, Richards got touched by Stephen Piscotty’s two-run shot.

In the ninth, Texas reliever Brett Martin allowed three A’s home runs in a span of eight pitches. The homers courtesy of Sean Murphy, Pinder and Kemp created excitement for those who remained in the Coliseum but that’s where it concluded. Martin recovered to strike out Piscotty and retire Dermis Garcia on a groundout to end it.

If this concludes the A’s best baseball of the season–and that’s not necessarily the case with the Astros in on Monday–it’s done two things. The strong play has given the A’s a path to avoiding 100 losses, and opened the door to them possibly catching the faltering Angels and not finishing last in the AL West. A 28-36 finish would allow the A’s to avoid 100 losses.

On Monday, the Astros/A’s opener features Adam Oller and Houston’s Jake Odorizzi at 6:40pm.