By Morris Phillips
OAKLAND–Two things are cropping up with the A’s these days: the losses and the length in time of the losses.
Add it up, not good, and neither was the 6-1 loss to the Astros in which they barely registered offensively. Only three A’s came to bat with a runner in scoring position, and they drew just one walk, and left four men on base.
Vimael Machin’s first Major League home run in the eighth was the highlight, and the whole thing was a rap in two hours, 39 minutes as the A’s saw a steady diet of strikes from three Houston pitchers and did little with them. The A’s have dropped nine of 13, and they haven’t exactly extended themselves in a majority of the losses.
But that’s A’s baseball these days, including the steady performance of their starters. Cole Irvin pitched six innings, allowing five hits and no walks, which looked good and was good, it just came without assistance, outside catcher Stephen Vogt.
“Little bit more curveball usage than I’ve had all season,” Irvin said of his afternoon. “Made my fastball look a little bit harder. Didn’t have good command of it early but it got better. I really wasn’t thinking too much out there. Vogter was calling a great game.”
In the absence of Yordan Alvarez, the impressive home run hitting first baseman for the Astros, who was both named to the All-Star team and placed on the injured list on Sunday, Kory Lee did his thing with three hits and three RBI. Lee, a 2019 first round pick from Cal, was feeling it, not so much from friends in attendance, but the Coliseum’s reputation for zaniness. Not a linear connection, but it worked as Lee put the Astros up 2-0 in the fifth, and doubled home two runs in the seventh for a 4-0 lead.
It’s crazy, being in Oakland,” Lee said. “The people here, the fans are really special so it was nice to get a little taste of home and do my thing here. It was a good day.”
It was a good day for Dusty Baker, who saw his club increase its AL West lead to 12 games and get five All-Star roster spots. And he didn’t get kicked out. In fact, Baker did little besides adjust his wristbands in the dugout, as opposed to getting ejected arguing calls as he did on Saturday.
“We got some timely hitting from some guys who played pretty good fundamental ball. Got ‘em over and got ’em in,” Baker said. “Korey Lee had a big day in front of all his folks. He put on a good display.”
GAME NOTES: The A’s have scored one run or no runs in 32 games thus far with little success (1-31). They entered Sunday’s game with a .209 batting average as a team and went 5 for 31 in the loss. The lowest team batting average over a full season since 1900 is .211 by the Chicago White Sox in 1910.
The A’s recalled Domingo Tapia from AAA Las Vegas and optioned Zach Logue, who started Saturday’s game.
The A’s open a three-game set in Arlington, Texas on Monday. Adrian Martinez and the Rangers’ Spencer Howard are the announced starters for Monday at 5:05pm.
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