An early knockout for Montas after he missed previous turn
The A’s are early in a stretch of playing 17 straight days that figures to test their pitching staff and up the value of starters going deep in games. Tuesday seemed to offer an opportunity for the latter, with Opening Night starter Frankie Montas returning the mound on nine days’ rest.
Instead, Montas didn’t get out of the second inning, allowing nine runs before the A’s bullpen covered the final 61⁄3 innings of a 101 loss to the Diamondbacks in Arizona.
Montas had missed his last start with upper back tightness but said he didn’t feel discomfort Tuesday. He said his “timing, like my mechanics, were a little off today, and my release point was not right” as he issued four walks and retired just five of 15 batters.
“It was just a rough day,” Montas said.
Kole Calhoun hit Montas’ first pitch for a double to spark a fiverun first inning. Montas walked three batters in the
inning and the biggest blow came when, one pitch after blowing a fastball by Nick Ahmed, Montas threw a splitter that Ahmed pulled to leftcenter for a threerun homer.
Calhoun also led off the second inning with a homer. Montas got to two outs with a runner on first but could not finish the inning, allowing a single and a walk to load the bases before being pulled. All three runners scored as Lou Trivino allowed singles to Ahmed and Jake Lamb.
“Just looked a little amped, jumping a little bit at times, trying to find the right arm slot,” manager Bob Melvin said of Montas. “I think it was probably a product of not pitching in a while. The (velocity) was good, he felt good, just wasn’t all there together for him commandwise. We’ll move on and look forward to his next start.”
Montas reached 98 mph several times and Melvin said he didn’t have any physical concerns about the righthander, whose ERA jumped from 1.57 to 4.74: “He was just a little out of sync.”
Trivino lasted through the fourth and Daniel Mengden pitched the final four innings for the A’s to help salvage most of the bullpen. In a stretch of 30 games in 31 days, though, it’s far from a stable formula.
A’s starters have pitched fewer than five innings in 11 of 24 games this season. Initially, that was planned as the A’s built up their starters gradually after MLB’s layoff — which might be one reason the A’s have largely avoided a rash of pitching injuries being seen across the majors. The plan, though, also called for starters to shoulder more innings as the season went along, shifting some weight from the bullpen that was used a lot in the early going.
The starters have turned in longer outings, but their numbers as a group on the recent eightgame road stretch (including at San Francisco) weren’t good. The rotation has a 9.45 ERA in 331⁄3 innings in its past eight games and allowed 12 homers after yielding seven in the first 16 games.
Being able to finish Tuesday’s game with Trivino and Mengden, then, “and not have to use a bunch of other guys when we have a ton of games in a row, that was huge for us,” Melvin said.
“They saved us,” Melvin said. “It wasn’t a great game for us, but you’re always looking for things, contributions, that maybe down the road help you out.”
Arizona’s starters quieted the A’s lineup in the first two games of their homeandhome series, which continues at the Coliseum on Wednesday. Righthander Luke Weaver, winless in his first four starts with an 11.85 ERA, held the A’s to one run in five innings with six strikeouts Tuesday and retired his final 10 hitters.
The A’s opened the game with a single by Marcus Semien and a walk by Ramón Laureano, returning from a fourgame suspension, but stranded both. In the second inning, Stephen Piscotty singled and scored on a Sean Murphy double. The A’s did not advance another runner past first base and were a combined 0for9 with men in scoring position in the two losses at Arizona.
“I feel like throughout this season and previous seasons, you’re seeing new (pitchers) fairly often,” Piscotty said. “So not sure that was what was going on. Weaver was locating his pitches and attacking and just pitched a great game. Sometimes you’ve got to tip your cap. But we’ve got to be better. When a pitcher’s on their game, we still need to be able to find a way to score some runs.”