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OAKLAND — At this point, the A’s are just glad to see the Houston Astros get out of town.
Swept over a three-game series as they fell to the Astros 7-3 Thursday, the A’s have now lost eight in a row to Houston and are 1-8 against the defending World Series champions this season.
The meetings between the two teams have not been very competitive. After winning their first matchup of the season, the A’s have served as a punching bag for the Astros, outscored 70-28 over the nine games.
But perhaps an even bigger loss came during the game when Matt Chapman was removed from the game with what A’s manager Bob Melvin described as a hand contusion.
Though Chapman’s left hand was swollen after he was hit on his left hand with a fastball Tuesday night, it was the right hand that began to bother Chapman, leading to Chad Pinder replacing Chapman at third base to begin the seventh inning.
“It’s been bothering him progressively for the last few days,” Melvin said. “He’s been swinging the bat well and wanted to stay in the lineup, but it just got the point today where a couple of swings looked to me like it was bothering him.”
Chapman dealt with the same injury last November when he began his offseason hitting routine and began to feel discomfort in his right hand. He told the team and was sent for X-rays back then, but the results came back negative and Chapman decided to just take a break from swinging until January.
After feeling fine swinging the bat in January and February, Chapman began to feel the pain again during spring training and received a cortisone shot. The pain had lingered throughout the season, but it reached a boiling point Thursday.
“I was trying to push through it and obviously just couldn’t do it anymore,” Chapman said. “The last couple of days I really started noticing it again. It probably wasn’t good of me to not say anything. I wanted to be out there for the team, but at the same time, you can’t hurt the team.”
Chapman was scheduled to undergo an MRI at some point Thursday. He was shut down for nearly three months after receiving the cortisone shot in spring.
With the way Chapman had been swinging the bat lately, entering the day hitting .252 with 10 home runs and having reached base safely in seven straight games, losing the third baseman for any extended amount of a time would be a tough blow.
“I think it’s normal wear and tear but it flared up on me today,” Chapman said. “My hand was kind of swelling up. We’re gonna get an MRI and go from there.”
Chapman had an uncharacteristic bad day on defense. Entering the day leading the league in defensive runs saved, he made two costly errors in the sixth.
Battling the brutal sun at the Coliseum, Chapman dropped a usually routine pop up that ended up striking him on the neck, allowing Brian McCann to lead off the inning by reaching first. A few batters later, Chapman’s shot at a double play went awry when he stepped on third base for a force out and airmailed his throw to first. The ball rolled down the right field line and allowed a run to score, with another run coming in on a double by Jose Altuve the next at-bat to put the Astros (45-25) ahead by six runs.
Chapman said the club knew about the injury by the sixth inning and had planned to pull him all along to begin the seventh.
“I don’t like to feel like I cost the team runs,” Chapman said. “I’ve been swinging the bat well and unfortunately this kind of stuff happens. Bad timing. It’s frustrating, especially when you’re playing well. Kind of an upsetting day. I’m just frustrated right now.”
As was the case throughout the series, the A’s (34-35) found themselves in a hole before they even got a chance to bat after Frankie Montas surrendered two runs in the first inning, which was the amount of runs he had allowed in his previous two starts combined.
Montas was tagged for seven runs, five earned, on 11 hits and four walks with a strikeout over 5 1/3 innings of work as he suffered his first loss of the season.
“He went up against a team that’s swinging the bat well right now and it looked like every ball he got in the middle of the plate, similar to everybody in the series with us, they hit,” Melvin said. “Probably other times I’d get him out of there earlier, but where we were with our bullpen, he knew he had to be out there a while. He stuck it out for his team, but probably not as good as he was the last few times out.”
Facing Justin Verlander for the first time since 2016, the A’s made a few dents in his line with a solo home run from Khris Davis and two-run homer from Matt Olson, but the right-hander still turned in seven strong innings, allowing just the three runs on five hits with seven strikeouts and no walks.
— With his injury only getting worse, Trevor Cahill was placed on the 10-day disabled list with a strained right achilles. The right-hander was walking around in a walking boot in the clubhouse before Thursday’s game. The assignment to the DL was retroactive to Monday, but after originally only expecting Cahill to miss a start, Melvin was unsure how much longer he will be out.
“We thought we had a chance to get him back and it just wasn’t the case,” Melvin said. “We really have no idea how long it will be. I’m not even going to try to handicap it because when I do, I end up looking like a fool.”
Cahill heads to the DL for the second time this season 1-2 with a 2.77 ERA in eight starts.
Chris Bassitt was recalled from Triple-A and will get the start Friday against the Angels. He was impressive filling in for Cahill last week against the Royals in what was his first big league outing since 2016, allowing just one run on three hits and one walk with six strikeouts over seven innings of work.
“He’s had a tough year to this point but it’s kind of come full circle for him,” Melvin said. “I know he’s in a pretty good mood right now and when he got here, he had a big smile on his face. Though sometimes it doesn’t look great for you, things can change real quickly.”
— Matt Joyce (back strain) will take batting practice before Friday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels and begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Nashville Monday.
— Needing a fresh arm in the bullpen, left-hander Danny Coulombe was optioned to Triple-A Nashville before Thursday’s game. Right-hander Carlos Ramirez was called up from Nashville to fill Coulombe’s spot in the bullpen.
