Aggressive nature on full display
Pettis waves home McCann for a vital run; Cole sets club record with 61 April strikeouts
Fortune benefits the bold. So here stood Gary Pettis, the thirdbase coach few ever call conservative for a team never described that way. A 34-year-old catcher who spent the first six innings on the bench was on the basepaths in the seventh inning of a one-run game.
Jake Marisnick launched a double into the part of Minute Maid Park’s outfield that only those familiar with it can efficiently navigate. The baseball rolled between where the Crawford Boxes and visitors’ bullpen conjoin.
Matt Joyce had little idea how to play it, fitting for an inning in which none of his teammates appeared interested in defense. Brian McCann, on base because Marcus Semien did not catch the pop fly he sent to shallow right field, touched third base.
Pettis waved McCann in.
“We have one of the most aggressive third-base coaches in the league,” Astros manager A.J.
Hinch said. “If you’re going to send McCann, you’re going to send anybody.”
From the on-deck circle, George Springer directed the bearded 225-pound behemoth on where he should slide. The relay throw bounced to Jonathan Lucroy, who could not tag McCann before he touched the plate. The Astros went ahead 5-3 in a game they won 8-4.
McCann rose and peered into the dugout with no emotion, as if all this was normal. For the Astros, it almost is. Perhaps not always with a man of McCann’s size or stature, but this was a further illustration of the sometimes frenetic brand of baseball they play.
They thrive on the pressure their speed places on opponents, even when there appears to be none. Incessant action necessitates clean baseball, something the A’s refused to play Sunday.
The A’s committed three errors in a seventh inning that morphed into an affront to the game’s fundamentals. The Astros scored thrice, breaking the tie game they won to capture the series.
“I think it’s been an underrated part of our season so far how aggressive we have been first to third, aggressive we’ve been on some reads and, this series, taking an extra 90 feet or being given an extra 90 feet,” Hinch said.
For the first time in his Astros career, starter Gerrit Cole did not complete seven innings. His 12th strikeout of the game on his 101st pitch — a 97 mph four-seam fastball — ended his afternoon with two outs in the seventh.
The 61 strikeouts Cole has accrued in his first six starts are a club record for April. Randy Johnson is the only other man to reoff, cord as many in his first six starts as an Astro.
Still, the bottom of Oakland’s order was a pain. Stephen Piscotty, Chad Pinder and Lucroy — seven, eight and nine in the A’s order — cracked Cole for four hits. Three went for extra bases. The trio scored all of the runs on Cole’s line.
Will Harris, on four days of rest, was summoned for Lucroy while Pinder stood on second in the seventh. Lucroy laced a single, momentarily tying the game his teammates choked away.
“We are aggressive, and we wanted to put pressure on them,” Hinch said. “We did put pressure on them, and we got a few extra opportunities to make them handle the ball and make some acrobatic throws.”
To begin the seventh inning’s tomfoolery, Alex Bregman coaxed a walk. He broke for second on a full-count pitch to Marwin Gonzalez, which the second baseman swung through. Lucroy tossed the throw into center field, allowing Bregman to go to third. McCann was summoned to pinch-hit.
This was McCann’s day a respite after back-toback nights behind the plate. Asked to pinch-hit against A’s reliever Yusmeiro Petit in a tie game, he sawed at a first-pitch changeup that sailed in. Ball exited bat at 82.9 mph and lofted lazily into the air. Three A’s converged upon it.
No one caught it. The error went to Semien, the shortstop, who tried to basket catch the baseball. Semien, Piscotty and Jed Lowrie all ran toward it in a confused haste. Bregman scored from second, even after halting while the ball was in the air to ensure it wasn’t caught, to tie the game.
“Our mindset and our approach is to not just get to the next base you’re going to,” Hinch said, “but an extra base.”
In stepped Marisnick. His misery is well-chronicled. Thirty-four strikeouts — including two on Sunday — have marred his offensive start.
A’s starter Trevor Cahill is a menace to lefthanded hitters. Twenty-five plate appearances against them this season has yielded an .091/.200/.136 slash line.
The Astros deployed just one lefthander — Josh Reddick — against him, along with Gonzalez, a switch-hitter. Marisnick, therefore, started in place of Derek Fisher.
Petit spotted a cutter on the outer half. Marisnick bludgeoned it into that tricky corner between the Crawford Boxes and the left-field gap. Joyce could not read the hop. The ball bounced around the outfield. McCann’s long journey home began.
“I’m running as fast as I can, which is brutal, but I’m running as fast as I can until he stops me,” McCann said. “I don’t score many times from first base, but it felt good.”