OAKLAND — The A’s continued their impressive play since returning from the All-Star break by beating the Houston Astros 5-3 at the Coliseum on Tuesday night, powered by a third-inning grand slam from Chad Pinder.
Oakland (37-63) is 5-2 since resuming play last Thursday and has won 11 games in July, its most wins in a month this season.
In what could be his last home game in an A’s uniform ahead of the Aug. 2 trade deadline, right-hander Franke Montas (4-9, 3.18 ERA) earned the win, going five innings, allowing seven hits and three runs (two earned).
In his first at-bat back from the injured list, Jonah Bride singled in the third inning off Astros starter Luis Garcia (8-6, 3.81) before advancing to second base on a groundout by Vimael Machín. Garcia walked Ramón Laureano and Sean Murphy to load the bases. The next batter was Pinder, who sent a Garcia slider over the left field wall to open the scoring with a grand slam, bringing the small crowd of 5,130 to its feet. It was Pinder’s fourth slam of his career and his second against the Astros (64-34). He is hitting .333 with four home runs and 16 RBIs over his last 10 games.
Houston cut its deficit to 4-3 over the next two innings as Kyle Tucker launched a solo homer, his 19th of the season, into the right-field bleachers in the fourth inning and Yordan Alvarez doubled in a run and scored on an error by Machín in the fifth inning.
Tony Kemp gave the A’s a two-run cushion in the eighth inning by scoring Stephen Piscotty on a two-out double.
Austin Pruitt, Sam Moll, Zach Jackson and Lou Trivino held the Astros hitless in four innings of relief. Trivino earned his 10th save of the season.
The A’s look for their first sweep of the season tomorrow afternoon as they send hot left-hander Cole Irvin (4-7, 3.08) to face Astros right-hander Cristian Javier (6-5, 3.13).
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