Frankie Montas deserved better.
The Oakland right-hander fell to 2-5 after last night’s 3-1 defeat to the Houston Astros, an unsightly mark to be sure, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Montas received just a single run of support – a fourth-inning Cristian Pache single that allowed Elvis Andrus to dent the plate – and has received either one or zero runs of support in six of his 11 starts this season. Montas boasts a very good ERA at 3.20, has averaged over a strikeout per inning, and his WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) is a gorgeous 0.99. The twenty-nine-year-old is a certifiable All Star candidate, and if the A’s decided to serve him up in trade talks (quite likely!), he will command quite a haul.
Montas has been great, because he’s had to be great. His teammates can’t be bothered to score runs for him. Anything short of a no-hitter is more likely to add to Montas’ loss column than gift him with the delight of, say, the purgatory of a no-decision.
Last night, Frankie pitched into eighth inning, and was pulled after allowing a leadoff homerun to Chas McCormick that broke a 1-1 deadlock. Manager Mark Kotsay signaled for Zach Jackson, a beefy rookie right-hander who comes attached to a strong arm – he flings fastballs in excess of 95 miles per hour – but his pitching mechanics have the aesthetic virtues of Slipknot performing Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Despite his generally decent numbers, Jackson frequently loses his release point, and as a result, his misguided missiles end up in locations generally preferred by neither catcher nor hitter. The cadre of Houston hitters that dug into the box against Jackson in the eighth inning – Jose Siri, Jose Altuve, Michael Brantley, and Alex Bregman – wisely disregarded much of what Jackson had to offer, and several agonizing minutes later, Siri trotted home from third after Jackson set a dubious record by becoming the first Oakland A’s pitcher to walk all four batters he faced. The Astros had themselves an insurance run (not that they really needed it), and Kotsay had no choice but to slam the bottle of Tums down on the bench and go remove the beleaguered hurler.
Sam Moll retired all four hitters he faced across the eighth and ninth, and Lou Trivino added to his Low Leverage Lou legend, ending the ninth by sending McCormick and Siri trudging back to the dugout after whiffs. (Side note: any further attempts to foist Trivino into save situations should be met with great derision.)
But the greater issue is the Athletics’ inability to capitalize on getting runners across the plate. Last night, the A’s went 1-for-12 with runners in scoring in scoring position, and stranded 11 runners, including leaving the bases loaded in the fourth (following Pache’s RBI single) and marooning a pair in each of the first and fifth frames. In the four-game weekend series versus the Texas Rangers, the A’s went 5-for-45 (.111), including 3-for-20 on Monday, the one game in the series that the A’s actually won (though it required a Jed Lowrie walk-off). On a granular level, the Athletics’ prime issue is an ability to read and recognize spin; the book is out on the A’s, and it’s a single sentence: throw as many breaking balls as possible, preferably over the outer half of the plate, because they will try to pull. At close of business last night, the A’s ranked dead last in all of Major League Baseball in batting average (.213), on-base percentage (.280), and OPS (.608). They are also third from the bottom with just 33 homeruns, though it’s not from a lack of trying. The team’s approach lately has been to muscle up and pull as much as possible, leading to a ceaseless stream of strikeouts and routine grounders to third base or, for the lefty swingers, into the teeth of the shift. In April and much of May, it was fashionable to attribute a somnambulant hitting attack to being behind thanks to the owner-imposed lockout and the shortened spring training, but we’re now in June. If the A’s are going to salvage this season and give us some intermittently watchable baseball, adjustments will need to be made.