Pinder’s grand slam helps A’s, Montas beat Astros

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.

well that home run was of the GRAND variety ???? pic.twitter.com/2lwyK0zLIO

— Oakland A’s (@Athletics) July 27, 2022

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.