Manaea better, but Texas hits 5 HRs
ARLINGTON, Texas — Sean Manaea’s June started a little better than his disappointing May. Still, he’s not quite back to his sensational April self.
The month-to-month man allowed two runs in Oakland’s 7-4 loss to the homerhappy Rangers on Tuesday. Manaea didn’t make it out of the sixth, going 51⁄3 innings, and he walked four, a season high, but it was the first time in seven starts he allowed fewer than four runs.
“I thought I threw pretty well and felt good overall, so I just have to build off that,” said Manaea, who had a 1.03 ERA over his first six starts and a 7.18 ERA his next six.
“He battled,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I don’t think he’ll tell you he had his best stuff; he was behind some guys, his ball-strike ratio wasn’t what we normally see, but he battled and he gave us a chance. That’s what you look for from your starters when they don’t have their best stuff.”
Both of Texas’ runs off Manaea came on homers: Robinson Chirinos hit one with two outs in the fourth and Jurickson Profar went deep with one out in the sixth. Manaea threw 90 pitches, 48 strikes.
The Rangers hit five blasts in all: Shin-Soo Choo hit a two-run shot off reliever Yusmeiro Petit in the seventh, and Adrian Beltre’s solo homer off Lou Trivino put Texas ahead 5-4 in the eighth. Joey Gallo added a two-run drive off Trivino, who entered the evening with an 0.82 ERA and hadn’t allowed a home run in his first 18 big-league appearances.
It’s no surprise Beltre is the man who got Trivino first; his 39 homers against Oakland are the most by a current player; Seattle’s Nelson Cruz is second with 32.
“This ballpark is a little bit conducive to that, especially when it’s playing like it did tonight with the wind blowing,” Melvin said. “You’ve got to try to keep the ball down. Some of their best hitters got some big hits for them.”
Khris Davis, as is his wont, feasted against Texas. He doubled in a run in the first, then scored on a base hit by Matt Olson. Davis added a solo homer in the fifth, his 14th of the season and 20th in 45 career games against the Rangers. The A’s designated hitter has driven in 45 runs in those 45 games.
Olson recorded his second RBI single in the seventh, his third hit of the day. Olson has nine hits in his past 20 at-bats with 11 RBIs. The A’s missed a chance to increase their lead that inning, however. With the bases loaded and one out, Mark Canha hit a bouncer to third that erased Davis at the plate, then Dustin Fowler — pinch hitting for Stephen Piscotty, who has a slight quad issue — struck out to end the inning.
Texas turned in the best defense of the evening. Delino DeShields made an outstanding catch in the second, racing away from the plate to haul in a drive by Piscotty, then slamming into the fence. And in the fourth, second baseman Rougned Odor turned in a slick barehanded play on a roller by Canha.
A’s catcher Jonathan Lucroy threw out his 10th attempted base stealer of the season, the most in the league.
Piscotty is not likely to play Wednesday with the quad issue. It’s not considered major, but if Matt Joyce (back) is also unable to go, the A’s might have to make a move to Triple-A Nashville to add an outfielder, probably Nick Martini, who’s batting .395 over his past 10 games.
The injury-riddled A’s might get reliever Santiago Casilla (shoulder) back on the homestand. Casilla pitched for Class-A Stockton at San Jose on Tuesday and allowed one hit and struck out one in one inning of work.
In addition, reliever Ryan Buchter (shoulder) will throw live batting practice Friday and is likely to go on a rehab assignment soon thereafter. Starter Andrew Triggs (nerve irritation, right arm) will throw a bullpen session Thursday and also could be headed on a rehab assignment soon.