Key men set to return after loss to 1st-place Astros
HOUSTON — After six losses in seven games, the A’s could use a boost, and they’ll get one Tuesday with the return of their most high-profile starter, Sonny Gray, and leadoff man Rajai Davis.
“We need to get these guys back,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said after his team’s 7-2 loss to first-place Houston on Sunday. “Get Raj back doing his thing at the top of the lineup, get your No. 1 pitcher back. Hopefully, this is a trend of getting players back instead of losing them, like we have been.”
“We could be going really well and it would still be huge for us to be getting those guys back,” third baseman Trevor Plouffe said. “They’re impact players.”
The A’s lineup certainly could have used some sort of spark Sunday against starter Dallas Keuchel, who is back to his all-world form after a down season. Keuchel allowed just three hits in 72⁄3 innings at Minute Maid Park and Houston took the series two games to one.
The 2015 Cy Young Award winner is 5-0 with a 1.21 ERA. Last year, when Keuchel went 9-12 with a 4.55 ERA before his season was cut short by shoulder inflammation, he still put up a 2.03 ERA against Oakland. This year, he has faced the A’s twice and has allowed seven hits, four walks and two runs in 142⁄3 innings with 16 strikeouts.
Jesse Hahn, starting for Oakland, took note. Knowing Keuchel was the opposing number, he figured he had little room for error. “You almost have to be perfect out there,” Hahn said.
The A’s did hang one run on Keuchel, but it was after he left the game. Adam Rosales singled with two outs in the eighth, and Luke Gregerson, the former Oakland reliever, took the mound. After Rosales stole second and pinch-hitter Yonder Alonso walked, Ryon Healy drove in Rosales with a base hit to center.
Houston’s first run off Hahn came in the first on Carlos Correa’s two-out double to left, and Evan Gattis contributed an RBI double in the fourth.In his past 21 games against Oakland, Gattis has 19 RBIs.
The Astros added two more in the fifth — unearned runs off Hahn — thanks in part to Josh Reddick reaching on a catcher’s interference call for the third time in the series. This time, it was Josh Phegley behind the plate, not Stephen Vogt. The error put two on with no outs, then a base hit by Jose Altuve loaded the bases. With one out, a bouncer by Brian McCann got past Healy, the first baseman, allowing George Springer and Reddick to score. Hahn then got Yuli Gurriel to hit into an inningending double play.
“When it happened to Vogt, I thought he was setting up close to him, and then it happened to me and I wasn’t happy about it,” Phegley said. “We don’t really know what’s going on there. We don’t think we’re too close . ... We’re going to have to make the adjustment and keep guys off base. That’s three baserunners in a series that we could do without.”
The A’s 22 errors are tied for second most in the majors behind Milwaukee’s 24 and they lead the majors in unearned runs allowed, with 17.
Hahn has made five appearances this season, supplanting Raul Alcantara in the rotation a week into the season. Hahn hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in any outing.
Frankie Montas gave up a three-run homer by Marwin Gonzalez in the eighth. In his past six appearances, Montas has allowed nine runs in 92⁄3 innings.
Oakland added a run in the ninth off onetime Oakland prospect Brad Peacock; Phegley doubled and Chad Pinder knocked a single to right to send home Phegley. The A’s left the bases loaded when Ken Giles replaced Peacock and got Alonso to line out to right.