A’s hitters can’t handle Astros’ Keuchel in 7-2 loss
Davis’ homer only damage against Houston’s Keuchel
OAKLAND — The tarps were removed from the Oakland Coliseum on Friday night, but Dallas Keuchel kept the A’s offense under wraps.
Aside from a second-inning home run from Khris Davis that tied him with George Springer and Salvador Perez for the American League lead with five, Keuchel was able to keep the A’s hitters in check as he allowed just four hits and one run over seven innings in a 7-2 victory.
The A’s were just the latest victim in Keuchel’s early season bid for another Cy Young season. Keuchel tallied seven strikeouts on the night as he pitched seven innings for the third consecutive start. He has allowed one run or less in all three outings.
“He keeps the ball down and even when you feel like you get a decent swing on him, he’s always at the bottom of the knee and has late movement and makes you beat it into the ground,” manager Bob Melvin said. “When he’s getting a lot of ground balls like that, it means he’s on his game.”
Kendall Graveman was pulled from a 1-1 ballgame after five innings despite only throwing 74 pitches. Graveman was seen wincing as he shook his arm, but Melvin said there was no injury sustained; Graveman was just pulled out of precaution after being unable to get fully loose throughout the night.
Graveman turned in a workmanlike effort in his short outing, highlighted by his ability to escape a tight fourth-inning jam. With the bases loaded and one out, Graveman got Brian McCann and Marwin Gonzalez on consecutive pop outs to preserve a 1-0 lead.
For the first time since Sept. 28, 2014, Graveman went through an entire start without recording a strikeout.
“I didn’t have the best stuff but I grinded through five innings,” Graveman said. “It was one of those games where I had to work out of a couple of jams and I didn’t feel as sharp as I did in the first two outings.”
The cold weather was something Graveman said made it tough for him to stay loose. Despite the concern, Graveman expects to make his next start on Wednesday against the Rangers.
“It’s nothing that should raise any doubts or questions,” Graveman said. “I feel fine. I just have to stay proactive in the dugout on cold nights like this and be able to go out and use those warm up pitches to my benefit to go deeper into ballgames.”
Ryan Madson replaced Graveman in the sixth and allowed an infield hit to Nori Aoki that put the Astros ahead 2-1, but Ryan Dull came in and struck out George Springer to limit the damage.
After Jose Altuve doubled with an out in the seventh, the first of two bad throws to first on the night by Trevor Plouffe allowed Carlos Correa to reach base and scored Altuve from second to make it 3-1 Astros. Houston took full advantage of the mistake as McCann doubled off Dull to bring in two more runs to take a commanding 5-1 lead, which was more than enough.
A combined total of five unearned runs scored for Houston after both errors by Plouffe. He did get one of those runs back in the ninth with a solo home run, but his two errors marked the eight consecutive game in which the A’s have committed an error.
“We’ve been inconsistent on defense and it has been an area of concern,” Melvin said.
The loss to the Astros now puts the A’s at 3-5 against the AL West.
Josh Reddick made his first visit to Oakland since being traded along with Rich hill for Jharel Cotton, Frankie Montas and Grant Holmes at last year’s trade deadline and was greeted with a video package during the starting lineups as well as a nice ovation from A’s fans as he walked to the plate with “Careless Whisper” playing over the speakers.
Astros manager A.J. Hinch was glad to see the A’s dedicate their field to Rickey Henderson. Hinch, who was a teammate of Henderson in Oakland during the 1998 season, said Henderson was the epitome of what A’s baseball was all about. “I love that they did this,” Hinch said.
The tarps were lifted from the third deck of the Coliseum for an A’s game for the first time since 2005, increasing capacity by 12,103 seats. For the entire 10-game homestand, half of the proceeds of the $15 seats will be donated to Oakland Promise, an initiative that aims to triple the number of college graduates from Oakland within the next decade. The official attendance at the tarpless Coliseum: 15,385.
Friday marked the first of 16 consecutive games that will be played against AL West teams.
Khris Davis hit a home run in his first game against the Astros this year after hitting just one all last season against Houston.