San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Montas strong again in rout of Seattle
Frankie Montas, All-Star. On Saturday night, the A’s right-hander enhanced his credentials to make the American League roster for the Midsummer Classic in Cleveland on July 9.
Montas struck out nine — one shy of his career high — and limited Seattle to two runs in six innings. He got tons of support from the A’s offense and the Mariners’ defense as Oakland cruised to an 11-2 victory at the Coliseum.
In extending his winning streak to five games, Montas (9-2) gave up six hits and one walk. He has lasted at least six innings in seven of his past eight starts.
Said manager Bob Melvin: “It seems like it’s kind of a typical game for him now: six innings, one walk, nine strikeouts. (He) pitched well again.”
Montas, 26, owned a 6-7 record with a 4.90 ERA in his first two seasons in the majors.
“I was working pretty hard this offseason,” Montas said. “I was just trying to get better.”
Mission accomplished. Montas’ ERA sits at 2.85. A’s shortstop Marcus Semien and third baseman Matt Chapman probably will get some All-Star consideration, but Montas looks to be Oakland’s lone lock at this point.
On Saturday, the Mariners went with right-hander Gerson Bautista as an opener. He needed a follower in the first inning.
Bautista walked the A’s first two hitters on a combined nine pitches. After getting two outs, Bautista lost control of the strike zone again, walking Mark Canha to load the bases.
Ramon Laureano then delivered a two-run single to left and Jurickson Profar brought home another run with a base hit off the glove of shortstop J.P. Crawford.
After throwing 28 pitches and allowing three walks and three runs, Bautista’s outing was over. Lefty Wade LeBlanc replaced Bautista and got Chad Pinder on a groundout to end the inning.
Former Giants outfielder Mac Williamson hit an RBI groundout in the second to cut the A’s lead to 3-1, but Oakland got the run back in the bottom half.
Semien jolted a LeBlanc pitch over the RingCentral sign on the left-field wall. Semien’s 10th homer of the season extended his career-high hitting streak to 12 games.
That also meant there has been a homer in all 74 Seattle games this season. That’s the longest such streak — by five games — in major-league history.
The Mariners opened the season 13-2, but they’ve fallen on hard times since then. Actually, they’ve fallen to 30-44, 19½ games behind Houston in the AL West. They certainly looked the part of a last-place team Saturday evening.
Seattle manager Scott Servais didn’t have to endure too much of Saturday’s drubbing. Plate umpire Carlos Torres tossed Servais in the fourth inning after Kyle Seager complained that a third-strike call was low. Servais took up Seager’s cause — then took a walk to the clubhouse.
To paraphrase an old line, it’s appropriate there are two “E’s” in Seattle. The Mariners committed four errors Saturday, giving them 79 for the season, by far the most in the majors.
The Mariners made two errors as Oakland scored five times in the fourth, though neither error figured in the scoring. Semien drove in a run with a single, Chapman did likewise with a double, Davis had an RBI single and Profar capped the rally with a two-run double to left.
Profar added an RBI single in the A’s two-run sixth. The switch-hitter has made the most of his hits this season; that single gave him 39 RBIs on 53 hits. That’s a lot of production for someone with a .218 average.
“Now every time he comes up with guys in scoring position, I think he has a lot of confidence,” Melvin said of Profar. “The average these days doesn’t make that big of a difference.”
The A’s had lost six straight home games before Saturday night.