In a snapshot of current times, the A’s played the first game of a doubleheader Tuesday against Houston as the away team wearing their home white uniforms at their own stadium while ash from California wildfires sprinkled from the sky.
The A’s won 4-2 under those strange conditions and in doing so, grew their lead over the Astros in the AL West to 5 ½ games, with another seven-inning matchup still to play Tuesday evening.
Robbie Grossman’s RBI single off of Zack Greinke broke a 2-2 tie in the sixth inning and Khris Davis followed with an RBI double, part of an encouraging game for the designated hitter who began the day batting .155. Davis also homered against Greinke in the third inning.
“Guys show up at different times when they need to and he certainly showed up big for us today,” manager Bob Melvin said. “You want to credit a guy who’s worked really hard and had to take a bit of a demotion.”
Davis had made just one start and taken three at-bats in 17 days since Aug. 21 and entered Tuesday with three extra-base hits all season. In his first at-bat, Davis drove a 2-2 fastball to right-center for his second home run and second of his career against Greinke, who already had beaten the A’s twice this season and held them scoreless for six innings in Oakland on Aug. 7.
“That was huge for him,” starter Frankie Montas said. “He shows he’s battling and he’s ready to play.”
“We’re trying to find the right matchups to get him going again,” Melvin said of Davis, who was back in the lineup for game two. With the injuries and so forth this is the type of guy that can carry a team. Every game that he doesn’t play kind of hurts me some. But just trying to get him going again.”
With Platinum Glove third baseman Matt Chapman sidelined by right hip tendinitis, the A’s got shortstop Marcus Semien (side soreness) back Tuesday from a five-game absence but scratched right fielder and RBI leader Stephen Piscotty before the game with a sore left wrist. Melvin said before the game that Davis was going to be in the lineup prior to Piscotty being scratched.
“As you’re seeing right now with the injuries that we’re having, other guys are going to have to produce and step up and they have to be ready for it,” Melvin said.
After Davis’ homer, Ramón Laureano added an RBI single in the third to give the A’s a 2-0 lead. Laureano also led off the sixth with a double and scored on Grossman’s one-out single.
That put Montas in line for a win in the right-hander’s best outing in a month. Montas had allowed 18 runs in his past three starts before Tuesday, including five runs in 3 ⅓ innings in his last outing in Houston. On Tuesday, Montas pitched with runners on base in each of his five innings but twice stranded men on third and held the Astros scoreless until Michael Brantley’s game-tying two-run homer in the fifth.
“I feel like today, I was just attacking,” Montas said. “Just, hey, you’re going to hit my pitch. I’m not going to try to get behind in the count or anything and throw what you want. You’re going to have to try to hit my pitch.”
Montas, whose ERA had ballooned to 6.06, completed five innings for the first time since Aug. 8. Reliever Jake Diekman pitched a scoreless sixth — the left-hander has not allowed a run in 15 outings this year — and Liam Hendriks recorded his 11th save, striking out George Springer and Alex Bregman in the seventh.
Melvin said Piscotty had felt wrist discomfort for “a couple of days” and again in pregame hitting “enough to where he had to come out,” but might be available to pinch-hit in the second game. Semien lined out to right field in his first at-bat since Aug. 29 and finished 0-for-4. He was not expected to start the second game and will likely play only one game of the A’s doubleheader Saturday at Texas as well, Melvin said.
“I think what we’re talking about now is playing it day-to-day to see how he feels, see what kind of residual soreness he has in there,” Melvin said. “If there’s a significant amount of soreness in there, then maybe we give him a day off.”
Tuesday began a seven-day stretch in which the A’s are scheduled to play three doubleheaders and 10 total games. That would be their most games played over seven days since 1966.
Matt Kawahara covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @matthewkawahara
https://www.sfchronicle.com/athletics/article/A-s-win-4-2-over-Astros-Khris-Davis-homers-in-15551391.php
2020-09-09 00:36:18Z
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