OAKLAND, Calif. _ Another day, another multi-home run game.
Just not another win.
A two-run single by Shohei Ohtani in the top of the ninth inning off reliever Joakim Soria proved to be the difference as the Oakland A's lost 6-4 to the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday night, ending their season-long win streak at 10 games before an announced crowd of 13,060 at the Coliseum.
Soria had a 1-2 count on Ohtani, and thought he had the strikeout on a curveball that seemed to catch the outside corner. It was ruled a ball by home plate umpire James Hoye, much to Soria's chagrin. Two pitches later, Ohtani laced a fastball to right field to score Tommy La Stella and Mike Trout.
Soria was ejected after the half-inning was over.
The loss was the A's first since May 14 when they fell 4-3 in Seattle. Since then the A's won 10 straight completed games, and were leading a game with Detroit 5-3 in the seventh inning before it was suspended. In the 11 games, the A's outscored their opponents 78-31.
The three-game series with the Angels wraps up Wednesday afternoon before the American League West-leading Houston Astros come to Oakland from Friday to Sunday.
The A's hit three more home runs Tuesday night, including a two-run shot from Matt Olson in the sixth inning that tied the game 4-4.
Marcus Semien and Ramon Laureano hit solo home runs in the first and fifth innings, respectively, as the A's battled back after a shaky start from Frankie Montas.
The rate at which the A's have hit home runs this month is staggering, even by 2019 standards.
Over their last 12 games, including their May 19 suspended game with Detroit, the A's have now hit 28 home runs, which includes 10 multi-home run games. They now have 41 home runs in 24 games in May.
Montas allowed four earned runs in just four innings, his shortest start of the season.
In the second inning with the A's leading 1-0, Montas gave up a two-RBI single to David Fletcher and a two-RBI double to La Stella. Montas, who came into Tuesday with a 6-2 record and a 2.40 ERA, finished with five strikeouts and a career-high five walks as he threw 96 pitches.
In his A's debut, Wei-Chung Wang came on in relief of Montas and threw two scoreless innings, as he pitched in a big league game for the first time since Sept. 2017 when he was with the Milwaukee Brewers. Wang, from Taiwan, pitched in the KBO last year and started this year in Triple-A Las Vegas before he was selected by the A's on Saturday.
Stephen Piscotty singled in the fourth inning Tuesday and has now safely reached base in 24 straight games, a new career-high that is also the longest such streak in Major League Baseball.
