Oakland A’s first baseman Chad Pinder connects for a grand slam home run in the bottom of the the third inning against the Houston Astros at the Oakland Coliseum on Tue Jul 26, 2022 (AP News photo)

Houston (64-34). 3. 7. 0

Oakland (37-63). 5. 6. 1

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–While the Bay Area’s Giants fans are wondering if their team will be buyers or sellers between now and 9:00 Tuesday night, A’s fanatics know that their team will be sellers. The questions for Oakland are who is going, what will the team get in return, and will A’s remain in Oakland long enough for the newcomers to play here.

Frankie Montás, tonight’s starter for the green and gold, is a prime candidate for an August departure. The 3-9, 3.16 record he brought to the mound tonight doesn’t tell the whole story. He has an inventory of five pitches consisting of four seam, split finger, and cut fastballs, a sinker, and a slider.

The 29 year old righty had gone 0-2, 1.50, in his four previous starts. He was forced to leave the last of those, five days ago, after just one frame because of a shoulder inflammation that had kept him out of action since July 3.

Tuesday night he lasted but five innings, in which he threw 78 pitches, 44 of which were counted as strikes. He surrendered three runs, two of which were earned, on seven hits, one of which went the distance, and three walks, two of which were intentional, while striking out three. He was credited with the win, his fourth against nine defeats, although his ERA creeped up to 3.18.

Luis García, who started for the Astros, was a pretty good 8-5, 3.65 at game time and had come in second in the voting for last year’s American League Rookie of the Year Award. His team began the day leading Seattle by 12 games for first place in the AL West at 64-33, 29 games ahead of the slowly improving A’s, who at 36-63 would need to go 45-18 merely to finish the season at .500.

García suffered one horrid inning but hung on to throw 108 pitches (63 strikes) over 5-2/3 frames, allowing four runs, all earned, on four hits, one of them a grand slam, another four walks, and a wild pitch. He struck out seven Athletics; five of his first six outs were Ks. He took the loss and now has a record of 8-6, 3.81.

Montás didn’t look sharp at the start but didn’t get into serious trouble until Martín Maldonado led off the third with a bouncing drive down the left field line that zipped past Vimael Machín, playing shallow at the hot corner, for a lead off double that brought the top of the Astro order to the plate with a runner in scoring position.

Chas McCormick and Jeremy Peña bounced out to Machín as Maldonado prudently remained at second. Montás threw two balls to Yordán Alvarez before conceding the remaining two balls for an intentional walk. He then threw third straight balls to Alex Bregman, who, with the count at 3-0 flew out to Piscotty in right on a 95mph sinker. The Curse of the Lead Off Double strikes again!

García dug a hole for himself in the bottom of that frame. With one out, Jonah Bride legged out a single to third. García got Machín to ground out to second while Bride moved up a base. Then García walked Laurano and Murphy, filling the basepaths with Athletics.

Chad Pinder unclogged that traffic jam, driving a 78mph slider 417 feet into the left field seats for his ninth home run of the year, his second grand slam of 2022 and the fourth of his career, putting the A’s ahead, 4-0.

The ‘stros quickly cut that lead to 4-1. Kyle Tucker opened the Houston fourth by taking a 2-1 splitter from Montás way deep to right, 425 feet deep to be exact. They were his 19th four bagger and 64th run batted in of the season and served as a reminder that three walks and a ball hit out of the park don’t make a game a walk in the park.

Alvarez drove that lesson home in the next episode by driving Peña, on first with a two out single to left center, home with a double off the right center field wall. Bregman followed that with a hard ground ball to third that Machín fielded beautifully but threw late and wildly past Pinder at first.

Bregman’s single allowed Alvarez to reach third, and Machín’s throwing error let each of them advance an additional 90 feet. The run was unearned, Bregman didn’t get an RBI, but the A’s lead had dwindled to 4-3.

After Oakland went down in their half of the fifth without achieving anything more than a walk to Murphy, Montás didn’t come out to pitch the Houston sixth. That task fell to Austin Pruitt, who disposed of the bottom of the Astros’ lineup in order.

García lasted only two thirds of the way through the bottom of the sixth. He got Andrus to ground out to start the frame before Piscotty doubled to left center and Kemp lined out to center. At that point, Bryan Abreu came in to strike out Bolt.

Pruitt stuck around to fan McCormick and Peña in the seventh and then gave way to Sam Moll, who retired Alvarez on one pitch with a grounder to Pinder.

The Oaklanders came close to stretching their lead in the home seventh. With one out and Machín on first, Laureano lifted a high fly to deep left that McCormick harvested just in front of the Ring Central sign, at the meeting point of the running track and the fence.

Moll stayed on long enough to retire the Bregman and Tucker, the later on a fly to Piscotty on the right center field warning track, and then bow out in favor of Zach Jackson.who had pitched to and retired one batter in the eighth inning the night before. He did it tonight as well.

Héctor Neris, pitching for the ´stros in the bottom of the eighth, caught Pinder and Andrus looking at third strikes and then yielded a double down the left field line to Piscotty, his second consecutive two bagger. Kemp brought him home with an insurance run by banging a double of his own off the right field fence.

Now the question was, could Lou Trivino, who had come in to pitch the ninth with a two run lead in Monday’s 7-5 win over Houston, hold on to at least one of the two run cushion he had tonight?

JJ Matijevic hit a liner back to Trivino, who knocked it down and threw Matijevic out at first. José Altuve hit for Meyers and grounded out to second. Yuli Gurriel hit for Maldonado and grounded out, Machín to Pinder, both of whom made nice plays.

Trivino justified Mark Kotsay´s faith in him and earned his tenth save in 12 opportunities.

The players on both squads will grab 40 winks and be back here to face each other at 12:37. Cole Irvin (5-7,3.08) will be on the bump for Oakland, and Christian Javier (6-5,3.13) for Houston.