Offense stays in stall pattern
Marte’s walkoff double in ninth inning extends losing streak to three consecutive games
OAKLAND, Calif. — Jose Altuve’s first swing garnered an extra-base hit and false hope of a speedy, scoring-filled game. His firstpitch double off Sean Manaea in the opening frame did not spur the Astros into action. The A’s starter in turn needed just four more pitches to retire Alex Bregman, Yordan Alvarez and Carlos Correa, thus stranding Altuve on third base.
A defensive battle commenced between Manaea and Framber Valdez. The Astros lost 2-1 on Saturday at the Coliseum for the second consecutive day. But the magic number of wins needed to clinch their fourth division title in five years was cut to two when the Mariners were beaten by the Angels later Saturday.
Through six scoreless innings, the Astros and A’s managed a combined three hits. Kyle Tucker’s solo home run in the top of the seventh broke open the stalemate before the A’s tied the game in the bottom of the inning via a hit-by-pitch and a blooped single.
Starling Marte walked it off for Oakland in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI double off Ryan Pressly.
Valdez had his first game since July 24 with more walks than strikeouts, yielding three hits, one earned run, four walks and three strikeouts over 6 2⁄3 innings. Manaea spun seven innings of one-run ball with three hits, one walk and eight strikeouts.
“We didn’t muster up too many hits but they did a good job of pitching to us. You don’t like it, but sometimes that’s how it is,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “They do a good job pitching and locating and playing in the right positions.”
After Altuve’s leadoff double in the first inning, Houston ran into some tough luck in the second when Tucker fell behind 0-2 and was called out on a third pitch well outside the strike zone that came up on his hands. Tucker said after the game that the ball grazed his knuckle, but the home plate umpire only heard a sound and ruled that he had struck out on a foul tip. Baker came out to investigate but decided it wasn’t definitive enough to burn his challenge. Manaea sent Marwin Gonzalez and Jake Meyers down swinging without a doubt afterward.
Manaea leaned heavily on his fastball to stymie the Astros offense. The Astros got runners on in a couple two-out situations when Correa drew a fourth-inning walk and Jose Siri was hit by a pitch in the fifth inning, but they could not score.
Houston made a handful of impressive defensive plays to back up Valdez, including a spinning throw by Altuve, Correa’s diving stop on Matt Olson’s rocket of a ground ball and a 6-4-3 double play to end the fifth inning.
With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Tucker belted a 2-2 pitch to rightcenter field, his 28th home run of the season and fourth in 19 plate appearances against Manaea, to put the Astros up 1-0.
In the bottom of the inning, Baker swapped Gonzalez out for Yuli Gurriel at first base to help preserve the slender lead. Valdez gave up a one-out single to Khris Davis off the rightfield wall, then procured a flyout for the second out. Valdez got ahead in the count 1-2 before his 95th pitch of the day hit Elvis Andrus on the foot and put two on with two out. Baker summoned Kendall Graveman to the mound with Josh Harrison due up.
“I felt like I wanted to get out of the inning in that spot,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “I thought I could continue at least to the next batter. I’d had some success against him earlier in the game. I’d gotten him out three times in a row so I thought I was in a good spot to at least get a ground ball from him there. But I wasn’t frustrated with coming out either. It’s just a part of the game.”
“Framber, he had Andrus eating out of his hand and then he hit him with a pitch with a breaking ball down and in,” Baker said. “He had enough to finish that inning had he not hit the guy. At that point in time, Harrison had already seen him like three times, and this is why we got Graveman.”
Graveman’s second pitch to Harrison was a 98-mph sinker that resulted in an RBI single hit 60 mph off the bat. The ball dropped inches ahead of Correa, who ran into left field and was unable to make the play over his shoulder. 1-1. Graveman struck out Marte to strand the go-ahead run on second base.
Graveman encountered another jam in the eighth inning when he loaded the bases with one out. Three of the first four batters reached via two walks and a single. The Astros huddled on the mound. For the second consecutive game, the A’s brought in a pinch hitter with the bases loaded. Seth Brown struck out swinging at a high fastball from Graveman. The righthander induced a groundout to end the inning.
The Astros went down in order in the eighth and ninth innings, leaving Pressly to try and force extra innings in the bottom of the ninth. Andrus slipped a leadoff single through the left side. Pressly struck out Harrison before Marte delivered the game-winning hit to center field.
Siri grabbed the ball off the wall and fired it to Correa, but the shortstop did not even field the throw in the outfield as the A’s waved Andrus home. Andrus injured his left ankle while scoring the game’s final run, marring an otherwise joyous occasion for the A’s but still managing to steal a series victory from the Astros.