Piscotty’s third straight game with homer difference in win vs Astros

HOUSTON – In what turned into a Texas standoff between Frankie Montas and Gerrit Cole, it was Cole who flinched first.

Despite Cole’s electric stuff, Montas managed to outlast him long enough for the A’s offense to come through late in a 1-0 victory over the Astros Monday to snap what had been eight losses in a row against Houston entering the night.

Stephen Piscotty’s go-ahead solo home run to the Crawford boxes out in left field off in the seventh inning off Brad Peacock was the difference-maker in this one. It was Piscotty’s 10th home run of the season, surpassing his 2017 total with the Cardinals, and his third consecutive game with a homer.

That was the play that will get most of the love, but the A’s won this game one inning prior to Piscotty’s heroics.

The A’s (51-40) were in grave danger with the way Cole was dealing through the first five innings – eight strikeouts on 82 pitches. They needed to find some way to halt that momentum, and they did it with patience.

After Dustin Fowler and Mark Canha struck out back-to-back to lead off the sixth, Jed Lowrie worked an eight-pitch walk to put Cole at 99 pitches on the night. Khris Davis followed by reaching on an infield single before Matt Olson struck out to end the inning, but even that at-bat lasted six pitches. Cole managed to strike out the side to make it 11 strikeouts through six, but at 108 pitches, his night was over.

Montas wasn’t as flashy as Cole, but he was just as effective.

The right-hander didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning and really only found himself in one bad spot, which came in that bottom half of the sixth.

Montas had surrendered back-to-back singles with one out, bringing up the man the Astros (61-32) wanted in reigning AL MVP Jose Altuve to the plate in game that was still scoreless at the time. He challenged Altuve with six straight power fastballs to put the count at 2-2, but it was an 86 mph slider that was they key pitch of the game as he got the starting second baseman in this year’s Allstar Game to ground into an inning-ending double play.

The clutch double play ended a stellar night for Montas that saw him allow just three hits and two walks with two strikeouts over six scoreless innings before giving way to the automatic duo of Lou Trivino and Blake Treinen.

Trivino turned in a perfect two innings, and Treinen sealed the deal with a scoreless ninth to convert his 20th consecutive save opportunity and 23rd save overall this season.

Piscotty also drove in the A’s second run of the night in the eighth with a single to center that brought home Davis.