Montas masterful as A's win 6th straight

OAKLAND -- A look of despair ran across Tigers outfielder Akil Baddoo’s face as he watched a 96.2 mph sinker paint the inside corner for strike three to begin the third inning. That’s just the type of uncomfortable body language that Frankie Montas tends to produce from opposing hitters when he’s at his best.

In two of his three starts this season, Montas’ electric arm has caused plenty of hitters to squirm in the batter’s box. That includes his brilliant outing in Friday’s 3-0 A’s win over the Tigers in which he tossed six innings of two-hit ball with seven strikeouts and one walk to help extend Oakland’s American League-best winning streak to six games.

A rough outing to start the year against the Dodgers has ballooned Montas’ ERA to 4.91. However, in his last two starts, the right-hander has allowed just one run with 12 strikeouts and two walks in 12 innings, looking more like the dominant arm that the A’s still believe he could evolve into on a consistent basis.

“When you only give up two hits and strike out seven, you’re pretty much on it with all your pitches working,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Good fastball today again. That’s where it starts with him.”

The heater has long been Montas’ biggest weapon. He brings two variations of the pitch -- one he holds with a two-seam grip to generate more sink, while the other rides across like a four-seamer. The sinking fastball maxed out at 97.7 mph Friday. Because he had such a good feel for it, Montas leaned heavily on it, throwing it for 66 of his 100 pitches as he aggressively attacked the strike zone.

Montas made several hitters in Detroit’s lineup replicate that look on Baddoo’s face throughout the night, inducing 15 swings-and-misses. Five of his seven strikeouts were also of the swinging variety.

“I feel like I'm the kind of pitcher that when I hit my spots and throw strikes, it’s tougher for hitters to get good timing on my two-seam, especially when I can put it where I want it,” Montas said. “That was one of the things I did good tonight. I was locating my two-seam really good.”

Also mixing in a splitter and slider that were used as the putaway pitches on four of his punchouts, Montas effectively utilized his four-pitch mix to fluster Detroit’s offense for most of the night. He constantly missed barrels, allowing an average exit velocity of just 84.7 mph.

“Montas was really good with his fastball,” Tigers manager A.J. Hinch said. “I don't think we had one back-to-back at-bat to get on base and put something together. The fact that he could limit any sort of momentum for any inning, that was frustrating for our offense."

Montas received support for his dazzling performance from the A’s offense in the fourth on back-to-back RBI hits by Mitch Moreland and Sean Murphy. Matt Chapman added on in the eighth, obliterating a 2-1 knuckle-curve from Tigers reliever Derek Holland for his third homer of the year, a booming solo shot to center that was smoked 106.4 mph off the bat and traveled a projected 409 feet, according to Statcast.

“We’re coming up with big hits, where we weren’t really doing that early on,” Melvin said. “It all starts with our starters. They set the tone and give us our confidence and mojo every day. Now they’re kind of following each other and pushing each other to try to better it.

“We didn’t do anything well for a while. Now we’re pitching and coming up with big hits.”

It’s amazing how much difference a week can make. Earlier this month, the A’s got off to a historically bad start to the 2021 campaign, matching their worst start to a season in franchise history with a record of 0-6. Friday’s win pushed them up to .500 for the season, continuing their run as one of the hottest teams in baseball.

“It’s pretty significant,” Melvin said of the A’s recent turnaround. “We didn’t excel at any facet of the game for the first six.

“Once you get in a hole like that, you’re just trying to win games and win series to get your footing again. I guess there is some significance based on the fact we were 0-6 to start -- we’ve been pretty good since.”