A’s give up four more homers in 6-0 loss to Angels - San Francisco Chronicle

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The A’s, who know well what it’s like to live by the home run, have come back to Earth against an Angels team thriving on it.

A’s pitchers entered this series having allowed nine total homers, second fewest in the majors only to the Cardinals, who haven’t played since July 29. In two games in Anaheim, the Angels have hit eight — four more in a 6-0 win over the A’s on Tuesday night.

Anthony Rendon, Jason Castro and Brian Goodwin all went deep in the fourth inning against Mike Fiers. Rendon, whom the A’s didn’t see in the season-opening series in Oakland, led off the fourth by homering for the second straight night on a two-strike sinker from Fiers. Fiers also got to two strikes on Shohei Ohtani and Albert Pujols before both singled, then fell behind 3-1 to Castro, who hit an off-speed pitch to center.

Two batters later, Goodwin hit an 0-2 pitch over the wall in right-center. David Fletcher added a solo shot against Daniel Mengden in the sixth inning. It gave the seven-win Angels an AL-leading 32 home runs; Fiers described the Angels’ lineup as “scary.”

“I would say it’s top three in baseball,” Fiers said. “Guys at the top just get on base; they find ways on for their big guys, Trout, Ohtani, Rendon. It’s a very tough lineup. But we’ll be all right, we had a couple bad starts but we’re still a very good team.”

The A’s, meanwhile, were shut out for the first time this season and held homer-less for the first time in 11 games as some of their most powerful bats have yet to fully get going.

Khris Davis started Tuesday against a right-hander in Dylan Bundy, given his 6-for-16 career numbers with three home runs in the matchup. Davis went hitless in three at-bats against Bundy in the loss, including a flyout to the warning track, and is batting .154 with one home run in 44 plate appearances this season.

Before the game, assistant hitting coach Eric Martins said Davis’ main adjustment early has been moving his hands back in his setup to “a better position where he could fire from. … He continues to work. He’s starting to get that comfort level back and get that momentum. That’s what we want to see.”

First baseman Matt Olson, who tied for the A’s home run lead last season, began Tuesday with five in 17 games but hitting .155. Martins pointed out pregame that Olson had drawn 16 walks: “So he’s swinging at the right pitches.”

Martins said Olson was “a little out of whack” early and made minor adjustments to his swing path and the length of his stride. “We found a couple of those little things, and now he’s right where he needs to be,” Martins said. Olson went hitless in four at-bats Tuesday.

Then again, no A’s hitter had much success against Bundy, who was coming off of a complete-game win over Seattle and had held the A’s to one run in 6 ⅔ innings in the second game of the season in Oakland. On Tuesday, Bundy allowed no runs and four hits in seven innings and struck out 10.

“Even more breaking balls tonight,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “When you’re going soft, soft, then you throw a fastball, it plays better than the velocity looks. He just had us off-balance. He pitched a great game. I think we’re a little bit tired. So we could use the off-day the day after tomorrow. But you have to give him credit, he pitched another really good game against us.”

On Tuesday, Bundy threw first-pitch fastballs to six of nine hitters his first time through the A’s lineup and first-pitch off-speed to eight of nine hitters the second time. A night after scoring nine runs, the A’s put men in scoring position in three of the first four innings Tuesday without scoring. They struck out 13 times and had one extra-base hit, a Robbie Grossman double.

Matt Kawahara covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: mkawahara@sfchronicle.com

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