Put this one in zip file
All-Star Treinen seals A’s 2-0 win by fanning Gattis with 2 aboard
Not once in their nine previous meetings with the Athletics did the Astros encounter Blake Treinen, Oakland’s All-Star closer who — if not for Edwin Diaz’s existence — could stake claim as the best reliever in baseball’s best division.
Seeing Treinen invites uneasiness, a hint that the game’s result is a foregone conclusion. He has not blown a save since April 18, but the Astros deployed the three All-Stars who dot the top of their potent order against him, presenting his steepest challenge.
George Springer rolled a single, the first Astros leadoff man to reach on an otherwise anemic offensive evening. Josh Reddick lined one, too, a two-out single that kept hope alive after Treinen retired Alex Bregman and Jose Altuve.
Evan Gattis arrived, he of 10 RBIs against the A’s in 26 plate appearances this season. Treinen fell behind 3-1.
“Ninety-eight with sink,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of the 3-1 pitch, “and then a 93 mph cutter. That’s pretty tough.”
Gattis’ strikeout ended the game and concluded Treinen’s 18-pitch ninth inning in Monday’s 2-0 Oakland win
over the Astros — his 20th straight save conversion and 23rd save in 25 opportunities this season.
Teams have scored once in the last 251⁄3 innings Trienen has thrown. His Monday exploits pared his ERA to 0.79, the lowest of any major league reliever. He followed two perfect innings from Lou Trevino, the feared back end of the A’s bullpen on full display during a night of pristine pitching.
“All three of their guys pitched tremendously well,” Hinch said of the A’s, who beat the Astros for only the second time in 10 meetings this year but have won 17 of their last 21 games. “We see a little bit of how they put it together on the mound. That’s as good a combo at the back end that you can have. It’s pretty electrifying stuff.”
The Astros struck five singles against Frankie Montas and the two relievers who followed him. The two teams combined for one extra-base hit that decided the game, one Astros starter Gerrit Cole controlled for six sparkling innings.
Mistake from Peacock
Oakland outlasted Cole and his most dominant evening in more than a month. In the seventh, the A’s faced Brad Peacock. Peacock enjoyed a resurgent June. Oakland continued his troubling July.
After falling behind 0-2 against Peacock to lead off the seventh inning, Stephen Piscotty crushed a full-count slider into the Crawford Boxes for a goahead home run, the fourth homer Peacock has permitted in his three July relief appearances.
In the first nine days of July, Peacock (1-4) has thrown 22⁄3 innings. Five hits and four earned runs are on his line. Peacock allowed just one earned run and six hits during 11 appearances last month.
“Just a mistake,” Peacock said. “I have some work to do with my slider. It’s not there right now.”
Piscotty spoiled the first two Peacock pitches he saw. After those two fastballs afforded him cushion, Peacock returned with four sliders — his putaway pitch that, when executed, is so lethal. Piscotty fouled one and watched two others miss.
A two-seam fastball was errant, too, before a fourth and final slider sat up. Piscotty looped it to left field. It exited the right fielder’s bat at only 96 mph. A 37degree launch angle allowed it to easily reach the Crawford Boxes.
Cole deserved a better fate. Not since May 4, his 16-strikeout masterpiece against the Diamondbacks, had Cole struck out 10 or more hitters. Monday, he vanquished 11. His 169 strikeouts prior to the All-Star break eclipsed Mike Scott’s 32-year-old franchise record of 167.
On Monday, Cole generated two more swings and misses than he did that night in Phoenix. Twenty-three in all — a season high. Cole struck out 10 or more men for the sixth time this year. In his five major league seasons preceding this one, Cole produced just six double-digit strikeout games.
His slider returned to devastating form, paired with a littleused changeup Cole employed liberally. Eight of Cole’s 29 sliders were swung through. He received 13 called strikes and seven swings and misses against 47 four-seam fastballs.
“He had his mix that he could go to any pitch that he wanted to and needed to when he got into a little bit of trouble,” Hinch said. “He didn’t get in trouble a ton. But when he did, he had some weapons.”
Cole touched 100.3 mph with his 105th pitch, a ball to Matt Olson in his sixth and final inning. His 108th was 99.9 mph, a nasty four-seamer Olson swung through to end the inning and extinguish Oakland’s only threat against Cole. He ceded just three singles.
Montas (5-2) matched his exploits.
Opponents struck 17 hits in the previous 82⁄3 innings Montas pitched. He attacks with a fairly basic three-pitch arsenal — two variations of a hard, sinking fastball complemented with a hard putaway slider he can run upward of 89 mph.
Tough night for Altuve
He allowed three baserunners in his first five innings. No Astro reached scoring position until the sixth, when Springer and Bregman stroked consecutive one-out singles. Altuve bounced into a double play that quelled the uprising.
“Really good sinker. That four-seam was upper 90s, and he mixed with the slider every now and then,” Altuve said of Montas. “Good location. He had his pitches.”
It was Altuve who bounced a one-out single up the middle in the fourth, his team’s first hit of the night.
Altuve scurried to second base on Montas’ wild pitch to cleanup hitter Josh Reddick as A’s catcher Jonathan Lucroy lumbered to the errant baseball. Altuve pulled up at second base, peered in to Lucroy, and sprinted for third base — unwise aggression for a team that prides itself upon such pressure-producing plays.
Lucroy was unfazed. He grabbed the ball and fired to Matt Chapman, who secured it before Altuve could begin a slide into third base. Chapman applied a tag while Altuve slammed his helmet at the site of this scoring situation — so few and far between on this night — that he combusted.
“It was a stupid play by me,” Altuve said. “I got in my mind that (Montas) had good pitches today. … I went to second and got a little excited, and I went. That’s no excuse. I just read it.”
A redemptive opportunity arose in the ninth. Altuve had a man aboard and one out. Treinen struck him out on four pitches.
“Don’t want to see him again,” Altuve said.