A's bats go cold without red-hot Gelof, recovering after HBP to head

WEST SACRAMENTO -- The Athletics have a deep enough lineup that they don’t rely on one hitter to shoulder the load, but with hot-hitting Zack Gelof absent on Saturday night, it sure felt like his presence was missed.

With Gelof held out of the starting lineup one night after a scary situation in Friday’s wild comeback victory in which he was struck on the helmet by a fastball from Kirby Yates, the A’s offense had a rare off night in a 7-0 loss to the Angels at Sutter Health Park, marking just the fourth time they’ve been shut out this season and first time since May 23.

Gelof has earned his way to the top of the A’s order during what is the longest active hitting streak in MLB at 23 games, slashing .360/.412/.596 (32-for-89) with 11 extra-base hits, including five home runs, 13 RBIs and 16 runs scored during that stretch. With one more hit, he would join Jason Giambi (25 in 1997), Miguel Tejada (24 in 2002) and Carney Lansford (24 in 1984) as only the fourth A’s hitter in the Expansion Era (since 1961) to record a hit in at least 24 consecutive games.

Even without Gelof, though, you would figure this A’s offense -- which entered the night batting .295 with 84 runs, including 32 home runs, over its last 11 games -- was potent enough to make do. Angels starter Walbert Ureña, however, put a halt to that good stretch by silencing the bats across five scoreless innings with six strikeouts.

This was the second time the A’s have been stymied by Ureña this season. Last month at Angel Stadium, opposing A’s starter J.T. Ginn like he did on Saturday, the right-hander tossed six scoreless innings against them. What he showed in that outing was more of the same this time around.

“He’s got really good stuff,” Shea Langeliers said of Ureña. “He’s like 97-100 mph with a sinker, four-seam, sweeper, changeup. So, really good mix. He does a really good job of making everything look the same and he attacks the strike zone. Hats off to him.”

The A’s had a chance to do some damage early. Nick Kurtz led off the bottom of the first with a double off Ureña to push his on-base streak to 21 games, and a single from Jacob Wilson on his bobblehead night later in the inning loaded the bases with only one out. That opportunity was ultimately wasted, as Ureña kept them off the board and settled in soon after.

“We had him on the ropes early and just couldn’t get the big hit,” Kotsay said. “He’s having a good season. He’s got a plus fastball that is mixed in with a pretty above-average changeup, and he dominated that tonight. Used his sweeper, too, to the righties. But the fastball-changeup mix had lefties a little bit off balance. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to a good pitching performance.”

On a night when Ginn was pitching without his typical strong command, the right-hander did his best to keep up by pitching into the sixth inning having allowed just two runs before Scott Barlow took over for him and allowed two inherited runners to score. Four earned runs were ultimately charged to Ginn in 5 1/3 innings, but Kotsay felt he deserved a better result.

“We didn’t make plays behind [Ginn] tonight,” Kotsay said. “In the sixth, the play [Max] Muncy had at third base, if we execute that, there’s two outs and a guy at second. [Lawrence] Butler’s ball, tough play in front of him, but a ball I’ve seen him catch before.

“We couldn’t make the defensive plays. But when you don’t score, you’re not going to win. That was the story of the night.”

Saturday night’s loss continued what has been a dance with the .500 mark for the A’s, now one game back under again at 38-39. Still, they’ll have a chance for a series win on Sunday to mark a successful homestand, and there’s a good chance that the series finale will include the return of Gelof’s hot bat.

“He came in this afternoon not feeling great,” Kotsay said of Gelof. “Nothing that jumped out as anything more than just not feeling his best. My decision was to take him out of the lineup and give him a full day just to make sure we move forward and he feels good tomorrow.”