Stymied by Lynn, A's settle for series split

The A’s are probably glad to be finished with Lance Lynn for the rest of this season.

Oakland’s offense continued to be stymied by Lynn in Sunday’s 6-3 loss to the Rangers at Globe Life Field. In three games against Lynn this year, A’s hitters managed just four runs in 19 1/3 innings against the right-hander.

• Box score

The A’s offense had been going well entering the day, recording 10-run performances in two of the club’s past three games. But the struggles against Lynn date back to 2019. Over his past six starts against Oakland, Lynn is 4-0 with a 2.21 ERA, allowing two runs or fewer in all six outings.

On Sunday, Lynn presented a different look against the A’s than what they saw against him last month.

“He had a better cutter today -- really more of a slider -- that he was throwing down and in to some of the lefties that we haven’t seen a ton of before,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “You look at [his cutter] and you see a lot of hard stuff -- one is sinking, one is cutting, one is elevated, one is down. He can turn one and a half pitches into like four. Once he settled in, he did what he’s been doing all year.”

Melvin believes the best time to get to a starter the caliber of Lynn is early in the game before he settles in. The A’s did that, as Marcus Semien’s double set up an RBI groundout by Stephen Piscotty for a 1-0 lead just three batters into the game. But after that double, the A’s went hitless until the seventh against Lynn, who tossed seven innings of one-run ball on three hits, while striking out 10.

“He was using his sinker really well. Got me in a couple of at-bats on that,” Piscotty said. “He was commanding all his pitches and was able to pick and choose what he wanted to use.”

Lynn gave the A’s hitters a bit more credit than the final box score might show.

“They scored runs off me and they put good at-bats on me,” Lynn said. “It’s just one of those things, when they do square up a ball, it has a tendency to go at people as of late. I hope that stays the same. They are a good team. They have a deep lineup. They make you work for things and today I was able to kind of counter what they were doing early and get through seven.”

The A’s nearly broke through against Lynn in the seventh. Trailing 4-1, Oakland had two runners on when Jonah Heim smashed what appeared to be a liner ticketed for left fied and an RBI until Isiah Kiner-Falefa made a great diving catch. Instead of a run that would have cut into Texas’ lead, the play ended the inning and kept the deficit at three runs.

“If that sneaks through, [Lynn's] potentially out of the game, they bring in a lefty and we’ve got some matchups we can play,” Melvin said. “That was a key play in the game.”

Tommy La Stella turned in his first homer since joining the A’s at the Trade Deadline -- a solo shot in the eighth, but it was much too late as the A’s still trailed 6-2 after the homer.

Frankie Montas did his best to try to match Lynn as the game went along. After surrendering a solo homer to Derek Dietrich in the second, Montas retired 12 of the next 14 batters he faced. Keeping the game tied through the fifth, one mistake pitch to Rougned Odor in the sixth led to a three-run homer that put Texas ahead 4-1 at the time.

Montas, who was pulled shortly after issuing the home run, was charged with four runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out seven over 5 1/3 innings. The right-hander allowed both homers on first-pitch fastballs.

“I feel like the first one to Dietrich was a good pitch,” Montas said. “With Odor, I made a mistake with him, throwing a fastball on the first pitch. He’s always hacking with guys on base.”

Though Montas continues battling to regain his early-season form -- he's allowed seven homers over his last five outings after posting a 1.57 ERA with no homers allowed through his first four starts -- Melvin saw improvement on Sunday, despite the two mistakes.

“A little bit of a rough start, but then he settled in really well,” Melvin said. “He cruised and then base hit, base hit, homer. It can happen quick. But I thought after he settled in, we saw the type of work that we saw earlier in the year. He’s making strides the last couple of outings.”

Up next
The A’s continue a long stretch of games as they make up their postponed contests due to a positive COVID-19 test. They’ll head to Seattle for a doubleheader against the Mariners on Monday, then travel to Colorado for a two-game set with the Rockies. With Wednesday’s game against the Rockies a matinee, that’s four games in a span of a little over 48 hours.

“It’s not ideal, but based on what happened, we knew this was coming,” Melvin said. “You try to hang in there and play at least .500. It’s all on the road and lumped together with not much time. Other teams have done it, too. There’s no excuses.”