Chapman injury, sweep by Astros causes A’s pain
Chapman suffers hand injury in eighth straight defeat to Houston
OAKLAND » At this point, the A’s are just glad to see the Houston Astros get out of town.
Swept over a three- game series as they fell to the Astros 7- 3 Thursday, the A’s have now lost eight in a row to Houston and are 1- 8 against the defending World Series champions this season.
The meetings between the two teams have not been very competitive. After winning the teams’ first matchup of the season, the A’s have served as a punching bag for the Astros, outscored 70- 28 over the nine games.
But perhaps an even bigger loss came when Matt Chapman was removed after suffering a hand contusion, according to manager Bob Melvin.
Though Chapman’s left hand was swollen after he was hit with a fastball Tuesday night, it was the right hand that began to bother Chapman this time, leading to Chad Pinder’s being subbed in at third base for the seventh inning.
“It’s been bothering him progressively for the last few days,” Melvin said of Chapman’s latest hand ache. “He’s been swinging the bat well and wanted to stay in the lineup, but it just got the point today where a couple of swings looked to me like it was bothering him.”
Chapman dealt with the same injury last November when he began his offseason hitting routine and started to feel discomfort in his right hand. But the X- rays came back negative, and Chapman decided to just take a break from swinging until January.
After feeling fine swinging the bat in January and February, Chapman began to feel the pain again during spring training and received a cortisone shot. The pain had lingered throughout the season, but it reached a boiling point Thursday.
“I was trying to push through it and obviously just couldn’t do it anymore,” Chapman said. “The last couple of days I really started noticing it again. It probably wasn’t good of me to not say anything. I wanted to be out there for the team, but at the same time, you can’t hurt the team.”
Chapman was scheduled on Thursday to undergo an MRI at some point. He was shut down for nearly three months after receiving the cortisone shot in spring.
With the way Chapman had been swinging the bat lately, entering the day hitting .252 with 10 home runs and having reached base safely in seven straight games, losing him for any extended amount of a time would be a tough blow.
“I think it’s normal wear and tear but it flared up on me today,” Chapman said. “My hand was kind of swelling up. We’re gonna get an MRI and go from there.”
Chapman had a rare off day on defense Thursday. Entering the game leading the league in defensive runs saved, he made two costly errors in the sixth.
Battling the brutal sun at the Coliseum, Chapman dropped a usually routine pop up as the ball ended up striking him on the neck, allowing leadoff Brian McCann to reach first.
A few batters later, Chapman’s shot at a double play went awry when he stepped on third for a force out and airmailed his throw to first. The ball rolled down the right field line and allowed a run to score. Then another run scored on a double by Jose Altuve to put the Astros ( 45- 25) ahead by six runs.
Chapman said the club knew about the injury by the sixth inning and had planned to remove him all along to begin the seventh.
“I don’t like to feel like I cost the team runs,” Chapman said. “I’ve been swinging the bat well and unfortunately this kind of stuff happens. Bad timing. It’s frustrating, especially when you’re playing well. Kind of an upsetting day. I’m just frustrated right now.”
As was the case throughout the series, the A’s ( 3435) found themselves in a hole before they even got a chance to bat after Frankie Montas surrendered two runs in the first inning, which was the amount of runs he had allowed in his previous two starts combined.
Montas was tagged for seven runs, five earned, on 11 hits and four walks with a strikeout over 51/ 3 innings of work as he suffered his first loss of the season.
“He went up against a team that’s swinging the bat well right now and it looked like every ball he got in the middle of the plate, similar to everybody in the series with us, they hit,” Melvin said. “Probably other times I’d get him out of there earlier, but where we were with our bullpen, he knew he had to be out there a while.
“He stuck it out for his team, but probably not as good as he was the last few times out,” Melvin continued.
Facing Justin Verlander for the first time since 2016, the A’s their fair share of damage with a solo home run from Khris Davis and two- run homer from Matt Olson, but the right- hander still turned in seven strong innings, allowing just the three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.