Garneau’s nice night for naught in loss

ANAHEIM — On a night when little Oakland offense was in evidence, Dustin Garneau fared well at the plate and behind the plate Monday.

Garneau, who is from nearby San Pedro and lives down the street from Angel Stadium in Orange, hit his first homer as a member of the A’s — making him the only man to cross the plate for Oakland in a 3-1 loss to the Angels.

“He’s a heck of a catcher and he got his home run, so a good night for him,” said A’s starter Daniel Gossett, who was working with Garneau for the first time. “It was actually really fun working with him.”

Garneau said he’s been working a lot with hitting coach Darren Bush on a few small changes in order to consistently attack the ball without swinging at bad pitches. “It definitely helps when the ball goes out of the park, everything looks right,” said Garneau, who is batting .154. “But my next (plate appearance) when I took the walk, I felt really under control. Homers are awesome, but with that (walk) I felt really comfortable.”

No other A’s player did much apart from striking out. Oakland faced left-hander Andrew Heaney, making his third start since coming off the disabled list after Tommy John surgery. Heaney, who’d allowed nine runs in his first 10 innings, allowed just the one run in six innings. He also set a career high with 10 strikeouts. His previous best was seven.

The A’s struck out 14 times in all, they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and they’re 5 for their past 32 with men in scoring position.

“We made some mistakes all the way around. We had a better chance to be in that game,” manager Bob Melvin said. “Certainly with runners in scoring position, we didn’t have very good atbats.”

So Garneau, homering in front of 50 or so friends and family and catching one of Gossett’s better starts to date, was a nice footnote for Oakland. With his defensive skills, Garneau, 30, has put himself into position to be on next year’s roster. He’s got a terrific arm — he threw out Ben Revere trying to steal second Monday — and he has a better catcher’s ERA, at 3.77, than principal catcher Bruce Maxwell (3.67) and the team’s usual right-handedhitting catcher, Josh Phegley (4.35).

“He does a real nice job defensively,” Melvin said of Garneau, who was claimed on waivers from Colorado on Aug. 4. “Overall, we’ve been really impressed with his body of work.”

Gossett, who allowed five runs in his previous start after being recalled from Triple-A Nashville, gave up three, two earned, in 62⁄3 innings Monday, and all three came with two outs.

In the fourth, with Martin Maldonado on after a two-out single, Kaleb Cowart hit a drive into the gap in left-center that Khris Davis came within a foot of catching but couldn’t haul in. In the seventh, with Maldonado again at first, Revere hit a double to right, but Matt Joyce tried to get Revere at second; when the ball got away from shortstop Marcus Semien, Maldonado dashed home.

“As long as we catch the ball, keep it there, not let him advance from third, I’m fine with it,” Melvin said of Joyce’s throw. “Just got a little in-between hop and Marcus has to make a decision whether there is a play or not.”

Gossett had three baserunners in the first and second, but he said that Garneau, Maxwell and pitcher Chris Smith told him to relax. “I came out a little amped up,” he said.

With the loss, the team clinched its 10th consecutive losing month, an ongoing Oakland record and most since the Kansas City A’s had 21 consecutive losing months from June 1963 to August 1966. And the A’s set a franchise record in the first inning when Gossett’s wild pitch was the team’s 73 of the season, topping the previous mark, set in 1979.

The A’s are also up to 1,216 strikeouts, third most in club history, after 1,387 strikeouts in 2012 and 1,226 in 2008.