OAKLAND -- Over the past two weeks, each of the five A’s starting pitchers has been engaged in a mini-competition to outperform the others. On Tuesday night, Frankie Montas kept that run of stellar outings going.

Flashing an electric fastball that maxed out at 99.4 mph, Montas turned in his longest outing of the season with seven strong innings of two-run ball and eight strikeouts in a 6-4 victory over the Angels at the Coliseum. The win pushed the A’s to a season-high 15 games over .500 (42-27) and kept their lead atop the American League West standings at 2 1/2 games over the Astros.

It’s been several years since the A’s have seen a stretch of such dominance by their starting staff. Following Montas’ impressive night, Oakland’s starting pitchers have now allowed two earned runs or fewer in each of the last 10 games, matching the longest such streak for the club since May 11-22, 2014. They’ve posted a 1.93 ERA over that span.

They say competition breeds success. But for as competitive as they get on the field, this group of A’s starters is a tight-knit bunch off it, too. Their bonds exist even when they leave the ballpark. An example of this came in the A’s previous road trip in Colorado, when the starters took a fishing trip to a nearby lake during an off-day and went out for breakfast together at a diner near Coors Field before a night game.

“The starters have a unique bond that you rarely see in Major League Baseball,” second baseman Tony Kemp said. “They’re also grinders. They have short-term memories. You saw Frankie tonight. He’s been really putting together some good starts of late and we were able to get him some run support.”

Though the power fastball dazzled for most of the night, Montas often went to his nasty splitter in times of need on Tuesday. Never did he need it more than in the fifth inning.

With the Angels already plating a run to tie the game at 2-2, two-way star Shohei Ohtani strolled to the plate in a critical situation with two outs and runners on the corners. Falling behind in the count, 2-1, Montas proceeded to throw two straight splitters. Each time, Ohtani was fooled with an off-balance swing, the second swing-and-miss ending the threat to limit the damage to one run.

“That was a big momentum changer,” said manager Bob Melvin. “Anytime Ohtani is up there with a chance to change the game and you strike him out like that, it feels like it’s a little more than just an out. Certain outs in games are bigger than others, and that was a really big one.”

he approach against Ohtani in that fifth inning was a calculated one for Montas. Given that he threw only a few splitters as he focused more on the fastball through the first four innings, he said he had a feeling the Angels star would be hunting the fastball.

“I was throwing a lot of fastballs earlier. I don’t think he really saw the splitter,” Montas said. “When he saw it, I was bouncing it at the beginning of the game. I was able to adjust it and throw it down in the zone and Ohtani was swinging. He was trying to drive in a run.”

After enduring a rough stretch to begin the season with a 5.50 ERA through his first seven starts, Montas has bounced back with a string of games that falls more in line with his immense potential. Over his last seven starts, the right-hander has posted a 3.07 ERA with 46 strikeouts across 41 innings.

“I’m just happy that I’m feeling better every time I go out there,” Montas said. “I’ve been working really hard to try to get better. Just to be able to see results, I’m just grateful.”

For a second straight night, the A’s offense supplied its pitcher with a couple of early big innings, this time chasing Angels starter Andrew Heaney in the sixth.

On Tuesday, a two-run third inning was later followed by a three-run sixth that featured a booming two-run double by Elvis Andrus, the first of two doubles on the night for the shortstop. Sean Murphy later added on in the eighth with a solo shot to center.

“Lately, we’ve been good at stringing at-bats together,” Kemp said. “The biggest thing when we’re in the cage talking is that we don’t want to give at-bats away. That’s what we’ve been focusing on. Going deep in counts and making pitchers work.

“We got Heaney out of there and got to the bullpen in a manner that we wanted to get to. Everyone is getting that midseason swing going.”