Oakland lets scoring chances pass by

The ball off Elvis Andrus’ bat had promise. It exited at 103 mph, a dart that turned to detriment. José Ramirez barely moved to secure it. Its speed, with the bases loaded, gave Cleveland’s third baseman plenty of time to fire home to start a double play.

The fifth inning Saturday epitomized the A’s offensive trials. After Andrus’ illfated grounder, a walk to Matt Olson reloaded the bases with two outs. Cleanup hitter Mitch Moreland flied out to end a scoring threat that yielded no runs. It loomed in a 32 loss.

“All you can do is go up there and hit it hard and (Andrus’ grounder) is a perfect example,” Moreland said. “He went up there, put the barrel on it, did everything he was supposed to do. He just hit it right where one of the guys was standing. That kind of turned into a tough one for us that inning. But we had a couple more opportunities today. If we keep doing that, we’re going to win more games than we lose.”

Creating chances has proved less challenging for Oakland’s lineup than capitalizing. The A’s left nine runners on base Saturday. They had one hit, a firstinning RBI double from Moreland, in eight atbats with runners in scoring position. Their .285 average with a man on third and less than two outs entering Saturday ranked 10th of 15th AL teams. Their .222 average with the bases loaded was secondlowest.

“All I can say is if you put yourselves in those opportunities, then we’re giving ourselves a good chance to win games,” Moreland said. “This fell on me a couple times the last couple days and I’ve not been able to get it done. But if we keep getting guys out there it’s going to happen. This team’s too good and one through nine our lineup is too good to keep leaving those guys on.”

An attempt at more late heroics fell short. The A’s first two hitters in the ninth reached against James Karinchak. Sean Murphy’s oneout sacrifice fly halved their deficit. Mark Canha’s infield hit put the potential tying run on second base. Andrus hit a chopper that asked shortstop Amed Rosario to throw on the run. His throw beat Andrus by a halfstep; an A’s challenge went for naught.

“As long as we keep getting opportunities, we have quality hitters and they’re going to come through,” manager Bob Melvin said. “We’ve just gone through a period here where we have not. I know our numbers don’t look great over the course of the season, but I’m confident that’ll pick up.”

It creates a thin margin for error. The A’s have played 30 onerun games, most in the AL. They are 1515 in those decisions. An overall threegame winning streak halted Saturday. A’s righthander Frankie Montas allowed two runs in six innings yet absorbed a loss.

As in his previous outing, at Houston, Montas used his splitter to effect. He threw 26 on 94 pitches. Cleveland hitters swung at 13 and missed eight. Montas finished five of seven strikeouts with the pitch. He stranded runners in the first and third innings. The fifth was his lone blemish.

Austin Hedges lined a oneout single and Montas issued a fourpitch walk to ninth hitter Daniel Johnson. Cesar Hernandez’s double to the rightfield wall scored Hedges and sent Johnson to third as Seth Brown chased the ricochet. Johnson scored on Rosario’s sacrifice fly to center.

“I felt like kind of my release point got a little bit out of control in that inning and I got myself in trouble,” Montas said. “But besides that I feel like I threw the ball pretty good.”

In three July starts, Montas has allowed five runs in 181⁄3 innings for a 2.45 ERA. The A’s have totaled six runs in those games and lost two. Andrus hit a 371foot drive in the seventh inning that yielded a flyout to the warning track. Franmil Reyes blasted a 437foot homer off JB Wendelken in the eighth that proved key.

“I thought he pitched well,” Melvin said of Montas. “Those are the type of games you expect out of good starters and hopefully you do enough offensively to win a game.”