Montas helps A’s avoid sweep by Astros

Athletics salvage final game against Houston, sit 4 1/2 games back in AL West

Frankie Montas was tasked Thursday with avoiding a series sweep at the hands of MLB’s best offense. He responded by giving the A’s the spectacular start they needed to break a three-game losing streak with a 2-1 road win over the AL West-leading Houston Astros.

Montas struck out 10 batters and limited Oakland’s division rival to just five hits in 6.2 innings. His performance staved off the club’s first series sweep since it dropped four games to the Astros to open the season.

Facing the league’s top lineup in runs scored and batting average, Montas was the stopper who got his team back into the win column for just the sixth time in the last 18 games.

“I mean shoot,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Against that club with the way things are going, not only was it needed, we needed him to get deep in the game as he did. It’s one thing it’s five for nothing and you have room for a little bit of error but 2-0 is basically 1-0 against these guys. Every pitch meant something. He might’ve had his best overall stuff of the year and he needed it.”

Montas has fired in fits and starts this season. Great starts have separated stretches of substandard ones in which he’s often been bitten by a lack of control with his high-90s heater or an absence of feel for his breaking pitches.

But Thursday afternoon Montas had everything at his disposal. He threw 16 strikes on his first 17 pitches, turned up the velocity on his fastball and delivered his splitter and slider in areas the Astros simply couldn’t reach.

The first four hitters in the Astros’ lineup were a combined 0-for-12 against Montas and Houston’s only run came on back-toback two-out doubles from seven-hole hitter Kyle Tucker and eight-hole hitter Chas McCormick in the seventh inning.

“I was able to throw my splitter when I wanted,” Montas said. “The splitter was working for me today.

“I feel like the main thing was they were swinging and I was throwing strikes.”

The 28-year-old recorded all 10 of his strikeouts in the first four innings, setting the tone for the rest of his outing. He went on to record 22 swings and misses, 11 of them on his splitter.

“It was his last two pitches in the bullpen,” A’s catcher Aramis Garcia said of when he realized Montas had his best stuff. “We were

just walking back to the dugout and I was just talking to him about if he could find a way to get consistent with the way he threw those last two splitters in the bullpen, I think we’re going to be in good shape. He threw the splitter better than he has all year.”

Montas was quick to credit Garcia for his success on Thursday. He said his backstop’s game plan and execution were perfect, a sentiment Melvin shared.

The A’s backup catcher this season, Garcia has been behind the plate for several strong pitching performances recently. Before Montas, it was lefty Cole Irvin’s eight strong innings in San Francisco. Before that, it was a seven-inning showing from Chris Bassitt on June 24 in Arlington. The A’s are 14-11 when Garcia is in the starting lineup this year.

“That’s your job,” Melvin said. “It’s to go back there and win games. That’s really all you’re concerned about … It’s all about winning. I think that’s only the second time he’s caught Frankie so that’s a difficult task, too.”

Montas was so strong, he mitigated another shaky performance from the Oakland offense. After the A’s plated two runs in the first inning via doubles from Elvis Andrus and Matt Olson and a single from Jed Lowrie, Oakland recorded just four more hits and did not score again.

The A’s left eight runners on base and went 2-for-5 with runners in scoring position. Since June 25, the A’s offense has hovered around a league-worst .200 batting average.

While they weren’t able to remedy their offensive woes on Thursday, the A’s did get the necessary lategame pitching support to get back in the win column — something the bullpen hasn’t done well in recent days.

Since July 4, the A’s have surrendered six runs in the sixth inning or later and twice it has been the difference in the game. But on Thursday, Yusmeiro Petit, Lou Trivino and Jake Diekman combined to throw 2.1 scoreless innings to hold onto a win.

“The last couple of innings are always tough here,” Melvin said. “You want to add on over the course of the game. We haven’t been able to do it and we didn’t do it today. We had a really good pitching performance.”

The A’s entered play on Thursday reeling from their worst stretch since starting the season 0-6. Their deficit in the West had grown to 5.5 games behind the Astros. But the A’s emerged victorious in their final game against Houston in the first half. Now they’ll travel to Arlington for a three-game set against the last-place Rangers before the All-Star break.