OAKLAND, Calif. – The A’s offense remained stuck in neutral for the second straight game as their seven-game homestand ended on a sour note.
The A’s managed just two hits after the third inning as they could not overcome an early four-run outburst by the Los Angeles Angels in 4-2 loss Sunday before an announced crowd of 10,029 at the Coliseum.
Jed Lowrie, Stephen Piscotty, and Chad Pinder all doubled for the A’s, who split their four-game series with the Angels and finished their week-long stay at the Coliseum with a 3-4 record. Oakland starts a six-game road trip Monday afternoon with a three-game set against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
The A’s left eight runners on base and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.
Down 4-0, the A’s scored twice in the bottom of the third inning without the benefit of a hit. Mark Canha reached on an Angels infield error, and the A’s worked three straight walks off Los Angeles starter José Quintana, with one to Matt Olson scoring Canha from third.
But with the bases loaded and still no outs, Quintana struck out Chad Pinder, got Sean Murphy on a sacrifice fly to score the A’s second run, and fanned Mitch Moreland to end the threat.
From there, the Angels retired 14 of the next 15 batters before Pinder doubled to left field with two outs in the eighth.
The A’s were coming off a 4-0 loss to the Angels on Saturday in which they managed just three hits.
A’s starter Cole Irwin had a solid outing except for the second inning when he allowed five hits, including a solo home run to Jared Walsh, and four earned runs. David Fletcher’s two-RBI double and Phil Gosselin’s RBI single accounted for the Angels’ two other runs.
After a mound visit from pitching coach Scott Emerson, Irwin retired Shohei Ohtani and Anthony Rendon to end the second. Irwin settled into a rhythm after that, throwing four straight scoreless innings to keep the A’s in the game.
Still, without much offensive support, Irwin’s was his fourth straight this month, as he entered Sunday with an 0-3 record and a 5.24 ERA over his last three starts.
Irwin has not won since May 4 when he had nine strikeouts and went a career-high eight innings in a 4-1 A’s victory over the Toronto Blue Jays. In four starts since before Sunday, Irwin had allowed 13 earned runs in 22 1/3 innings and an 2.93 opponents’ batting average.
With his team’s loss, Bob Melvin still has 798 wins as the A’s manager, tied for most in Oakland history with Tony La Russa. Melvin was hired by the A’s in June 2011. La Russa managed the A’s from July 1986 until the end of the 1995 season.
— Sunday’s crowd was the second-largest of the season for the A’s behind opening night’s attendance of 10,436 on April 1.
— A foul ball from Angels outfielder Juan Lagares behind home plate in the fifth inning smashed a window in the front of a suite just above Section 214 at the Coliseum. Security cleared out the section of spectators. An A’s spokesman said there were no injuries.
— Jesús Luzardo, activated from the injury list earlier in the day, came on in the ninth inning and retired all three batters he faced. His fastball touched 98 mph,
