The Houston Astros Martin Maldonado (right) takes catcher Sean Murphy (left) and the Oakland A’s deep in the fourth inning for a two run home run at the Oakland Coliseum on Thu May 20, 2021 (AP News photo)

Houston 8 – 14 – 0

Oakland 4. – 8 – 1

By Lewis Rubman

Thu May 20, 2021

OAKLAND–You don’t have to be the village explainer to understand that the modern pitching format of a six to seven inning starting performance + two or three relief specialists is fine if all of those moving parts are functioning properly on the same day. If not, not.

Wednesday night’s A’s defeat at the hands of the Houston Astros 8-1 and their own bullpen was an example. The struggling Frankie Montás, after an extremely rocky first inning, pitched gutsy but uneconomically through five frames, throwing 98 pitches in the process and managed to hold his opponents scoreless after a first inning that boded disaster and yielded three runs.

The A’s pitchers who followed him did not. Especially concerning was Sergio Romo’s brief stint on the mound, since he had been showing signs of breaking out of his early season funk and becoming a key member of the bullpen staff.

But, as Scarlette O’Hara observed, tomorrow is another day, and Thursday afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum it was left handed Cole Irvin (3-4, 3.02) who toed the rubber against Houston’s right handed starter Luis García in the rubber match of this important three game series, which would have been crucial had it occurred later in the season. Unfortunately for the A’s the hitting prowess of Jose Altuve and Martin Maldonado proved too much as the Astros took two out of three from the A’s winning Thursday 8-4.

This time it was Oakland that jumped ahead early. Mark Canha led off by blasting his eighth home run on García’s second offering, a 90 mph fast ball that landed 374 feet from home over the low fence in left field. The one run lead Canha’s homer gave Oakland soon was gone with the wind. Myles Straw led off the top of the third with a single to left.

He scored on Martín Maldonado’s double to left. The slow moving Maldonado was helped in his attempt to stretch his hit by the trouble Canha had in fielding it. Irvin walked Altuve before yielding a single to right center to Michael Brantley, which enabled Maldonado to score and the fleet footed Altuve to reach third. Alex Bergman’s single to center made it 3-1 with runners on first and second and still no one out. Irvin got out of that jam by striking out Yordán Alvarez and getting Yuli Gurriel to hit a bouncer to Chapman at third for an inning ending U5-3 double play.

The A’s came roaring back in their half of the third. Tony Kemp, wearing sparkling shoes that could have taken Dorothy back to Kansas the way they glilstened in the afternoon sun, led off by launching his first round tripper of the year, a 352 foot no doubter into the right field seats, on a 91 mph fastball. But all that Oakland could add to that was Canha’s base on balls.

Maldonado, who came into the game with the gross batting average of .144 and already had hit a questionably scored double in the third, hit an unquestionable home run in the fourth. Tucker was on second with two outs when the Astros’ backstop hit his third dinger of the year, 388 feet into the right field stands on an 89 mph fast ball. lt seemed that with each step forward, the A’s took two steps back. Houston now led 5-2.

Burch Smith relieved Irvin to start the sixth. He lasted five innings, giving up five runs, all earned, on eight hits, including one home run, and two walks, throwing 86 pitches, 55 for strikes, and was on the hook for the loss when he left the game.

The bottom half of the inning began with leftly Brooks Raley on the mound for Houston. García had thrown 92 pitches, 58 for stirkes, over five frames. He had allowed two runs, which were earned and had come on solo homers. His walk total was two, and his strike outs, seven. He was in line for the win on departing.

Oakland caught a break when Straw and Brantley couldn’t decide which of them would catch the fly ball Olson lifted into left center with one out, and it fell between them for a double. After Chapman flew out to Brantley in left, and Lowrie singled to right, scoring Olson and bringing the home team to within two runs of the visitors, whom they trailed, 5-3.

Houston got that run back in the top of the seventh. Altuve stretched his hitting streak to 14 on a single to left. Brantley then lined out to Kemp, who deliberately let the ball fall from his glove to the infield dirt and tlhrew to Andrus at second, hoping for. double play.

But first base umpire Chris Guccione would have none of that, and the play was ruled a line out with Altuve still safe at first. Bregman then doubled him home, and Oakland once more was looking at a three run deficit. They also were looking at the offerings of Bryan Abreu, who came in to pitch the seventh for the Astros.

The crafty but thwarted Tony Kemp greeted him with a double to left. Andrus hit a bounder to the mound, which caught Kemp in no man’s land between second and third, but he managed to stay in a rundown long enough for Andrus to reach second before Houston put Kemp out, 1-4-5.

Kemp’s heads up baserunning was as in vain as his attempted Little League trickery in the top of the inning had been. Both Canha and Brown grounded out, and that was it for the A’s in the seventh.

Reymin Gudjuan, who retired Houston with one hit in the ninth last night, came in and immediately gave up a hit, a double to left, to Correa. That was all he gave up.

Dusty Baker entrusted the job of holding the A’s at bay in the eigthth to Ryan Stanek. He hit the first batter he faced, Ramón Laureano, on the second pitch he threw. Five more pitches, and he’d walked Olson, putting two runners on with no outs and the resurgent Matt Chapman at the plate.

Chappy took him to 2-2, and then struck out swinging on a 99 mph fastball that he tipped into Maldonado’s mitt. It was a 98 mph fastball that got Lowrie swinging and missing for the strike out that made it two down. Now it was up to Sean Murphy. He walked, bringing up Kemp with the bases loaded. And that’s where Staneks’ labors ended, replaced by Ryan Pressly.

Kemp grounded out, second to first.

That was a letdown. What happened in the top of the ninth was a bigger one. Altuve singled to right. Laureano robbed Brantley of extra bases with his grab of a fly ln right in right center. Then Bregman singled to right, rifling a shot past Kemp.

Alvarez a grounder to Olson that had double play written all over it and threw to second for the force out. Andrus threw back to first, but wildly, allowing Altuve to score and Alvarez to move on to second. Gurriel drove him in from there on a single to center, and, for the second straight game, Houston had put up eight runs against the A´s. Seth Brown hit an anticlimactic home run to right, but it was too little, too late, and a called third strike on a full count to Laureano ended the frustrating day for the A’s.

The win went to García and the loss to Irvin. The A’s go to Anaheim to face the Angels in a three game set and will return to the Coliseum on the 24th to duke it out with Seattle. Melvin got ejected. The Astros now are in first place. And that’s that.

Oakland A’s designated hitter Mitch Moreland seen here turning on one for a two run homer against the Toronto Blue Jays in the second inning on Tue May 4, 2021 at the Oakland Coliseum (AP News file photo)

On the A’s podcast with Jerry F:

#1 How much will the A’s miss designated hitter Mitch Moreland out of the line up he was hitting .237 with 11 runs, four homers, and 15 RBIs he will be replace by Luis Barrera an outfielder who is considered the top outfielder in the minors.

#2 Moreland is out with a inflamed costochondral junction on his left rib, Jerry explain what this injury is like and how long will Moreland be on the injury list.

#3 Jerry, JB Wendelken started doing sock throws on Tuesday he’s expected to recover but talk about his exercises and how soon he can come back?

#4 According baseball metrics the A’s have one of the worst defensive teams in baseball A’s manager Bob Melvin said the A’s might be struggling to win Gold Glove Awards but they certainly aren’t the bottom of the food chain in the American League.

#5 It’s game two of the three game series at the Oakland Coliseum today at 12:37pm as the Houston Astros will start Luis Garcia (1-3 ERA 3.34) and for the A’s Cole Irvin (3-4 ERA 3.02). Irvin in his last outing threw for 6.2 innings and gave up only one run against the Twins.

Join Jerry each Thursday for the A’s podcast at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Oakland A’s starter Frankie Montas (47) delivers a pitch in the first inning against the Houston Astros at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed May 19, 2021 (AP News photo)

Houston 8 – 15 – 2

Oakland 1 – 4 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Wed May 19, 2021

OAKLAND–Tuesday night, the Houston Astros (25-18) had the Oakland A’s (26-18) against the ropes for most of their nine inning bout, but they never threw the knockout punch and couldn’t even pull off a split decision. Oakland flew like a butterfly and stung like a bee, a bee named Ramón Laureano, until the mean fighting machine from Texas hit the canvas at the final bell. You can’t expect a game like that every day, but you always come hoping that somehow, you’ll get one.

Wednesday’s contest promised at least one similarity with last night’s; Houston sent to the mound a pitcher who seemed to have the advantage over his counterpart for Oakland.

Indeed, Zack Greinke is an established front line hurler who, alone with Greg Maddox and Bob Gibson, has pitched in three All-Star Games and won six Gold Gloves. He is among the select list of a dozen pitchers with at least 1,000 strikeouts to his credit in each major league. He has won a Cy Young Award (not to mention a Silver Slugger trophy). These are only a few of the highlights of his sixteen year MLB career.

So, what has Greinke done for Houston recently? Five days ago, he went seven innings against the Rangers, allowing three runs, all earned, on seven hits and a walk while striking out five. In his three previous starts, he hadn’t gotten past the fourth frame.

He’s faced the A’s once in ’21, earning the win in the season opener with six innings of three hit shutout ball. Although his won-lost record stands at 3-1, his ERA is an unimpressive 4.18. It was 4.03 in last year’s anomolous season. He’s 37 years old and very likely on the down side of his distinguished career.

He is getatable; Detroit touched him for six earned runs on ten hits in 4-2/3 innings on April 12. And let’s not forget that Ramón Laureano had a slash line of .545/.545/1.182, in 11 plate appearance against the probable Hall of Famer before they faced each other in the bottom of the first.

Frankie Montás (5-2, 4.93), the immensely talented 28 year old the A’s will throw against the ‘stros, is anything but the seasoned veteran he faced off against. During his three year big league career, he has shown immense promise and experienced several difficulties, not always of his own doing.

So far this year, his record is decidedly mixed, not just in the contrast between his won-lost record and ERA. The quality of his work at home differs greatly from that of his road performances. Away from home, he’s gone 2-1 with an earned run average of 2.50. At the Coliseum, he’s 3-1, even though his ERA is a high altitude 6.75.

José Altuve greeted Montás rudely, driving his first pitch of the game, an 88 mph slider, 396 feet into the left field seats. It was the diminutive second sackers fifth home run and eighteenth RBI of the young season and extended his hitting streak to 13 games, a Baker´s dozen.

It seemed as though this might be a passing glinch in Montás´s evening when Michael Brantley went down swinging on three pitches. But Alex Bregman drew a walk, and, after Montás K´d Yordán Alvarez, Yuli Gurriel singled to right, sending Bergman to second.

He scored from there on Carlos Correa’s bloop single to right. Montás ended the inning by striking out Kyle Tucker. Nowadays, that´s called striking out the side. In my youth, it was called striking out three but allowing two runs to score.

The A’s halved the Houston lead when, with two down in the bottom of the second, Chad Pinder singled to right and scored on Sean Murphy’s double to left.

Montás finished his shift after five innings or hard labor. He threw 98 pitches in that span, and 66 of those counted as strikes. It was’t until the fourth, when Brantley was the only Astros to get on base, that he finished a frame without allowing a.t least two base runners. In fifth, he finally retired the side in order. The two runs charged to him were earned, and they came on seven hits and two walks. He struck out six.

Deolis Guerra took over pitching duties in the sixth. His battery mate was Aramis García, who had replaced Murphy in the bottom of the fourth following blow to the head of the A’s starting catcher in the top of that episode. Bob Melvin said that it looks like he might be able to play tomorrow.

The only offense the A’s could muster betwen Murphy’s RBI double in the second and Canha’s one out single to left in the sixth was an infield single by Andrus to lead off the third. Canha hustled to second when Brantley lost control of the Athletics’ DH hit, but that was as far as he got.

Guerra disposed of the Astros in the sixth with a little help from a pitcher’s best friend. He retired the first two men he faced in the seventh but then walked Bergman and allowed a single to right by Alvarez. Gurriel cleared the bases on a 3-2 count with a double that the leaping Canha almost caught at the fence (it almost got over the fence as well). Enter Sergio Romo. The much booed Carlos Correa slapped a single to right, plating Gurriel with Houston’s third run of the inning, all of them charged to Guerra.

Adam Kolarek was on the hill to open the eighth. Myles Straw greeted him with a grounder that just evaded Lowrie’s reach. The Houston center fielder made it into scoring position at second on the slow moving Maldonado’s grounder to short.

The dangerous Altuve struck out. He eventually had to settle for two hits in six at bats as the balance of his evening’s activity at the plate. It was Brantley’s single to center that brought Straw in with Houston’s sixth tally. After Kolarek walked Alvarez, Gurriel’s double to left brought Bergman in with Houston’s third run of the inning and eighth of the game. Montás was charged with the loss, bringing him to 5-3, 4.79, which actually lowered his ERA.

Greinke got the well deserved win. His record now stands at 4-1, 3.77. He threw 89 pitches (63 strikes) over eight innings, allowing one run on four hits, and no walks while recording eight strike outs, before being relieved by Kent Emanuel, a lefty who wears the number 0 on the back of his uniform and shut them down with only a man reaching first on an error by Bergman.

Besides Reymin Gudan, who came in to take the A’s to the finish line and escaped unscathed by anything worse than a single, Romo was the only Oakland hurler not charged with a run. On other hand, he allowed three inherited runners to score. It was not a an enouraging night for the Athletics’ bullpen.

The A’s will close out the series and their current home stand tomorrow in game a scheduled for a 12:37 start. Right hander Luis García (1-3, 3.34) will pitch for Houston. He’ll be matched against Oakland’s left handed pleasant surprise, Cole Irwin (3-4,3.02). The winning team will leave town in (probably temporary) possesion of first place in the AL West.

TO ERR IS HUMAN In my report on last night’s game, I mistakenly identified the pivot man in the nifty double play the A’s pulled off in the eighth inning as second baseman Tony Kemp. The shortstop, Chad Pinder, should have been credited with a put out and an assist on that play.