A’s keep annoying kingpins of West
Odorizzi pounded as Oakland adds to recent success
OAKLAND, Calif. — The Astros own an advantage no other American League team can claim, a quirk of the schedule that should set them up to sail through the second half. Ten of their final 66 games are against the A’s, a cellar-dwelling division foe mired in a miserable teardown. Oakland traded away all of its talent this winter. Next week at the trade deadline, the team should deal what little remains.
Before they do, the A’s will continue a slow decline into further ignominy. The Astros are built to bully these types of ballclubs. The A’s are not allowing it. They beat Houston for the fourth time in five games on Monday, ending the Astros’ fivegame winning streak with a 7-5 win that just 4,015 fans witnessed.
Those that were there will not want to remember it. The two teams alternated awful sequences of baseball, complete with wretched starting pitching, mindless defensive blunders and a total absence of clutch hitting.
The Astros finished 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position, including stranding the two tying runs in the ninth inning. After racing out to a fiverun advantage, Oakland tried to hand the Astros a game it had no business winning. Houston fumbled the exchange. The team brought the tying run to the plate in each of the final three frames, but could not bail out starter Jake Odorizzi.
Odorizzi opposed the A’s for a third consecutive start. He stymied them in the two preceding it, permitting three earned runs and punching out 12 across 121⁄3 innings. Monday represented a miserable regression to a mean, perhaps expected for a man facing the same hitters again in such short order.
Odorizzi yielded six runs across five frustrating innings. Four of them came during a dreadful fourth. Odorizzi need
ed 30 pitches to finish it. Assistant athletic trainer Eric Velazquez visited him amid the carnage, appearing to address a fingernail or blister issue on Odorizzi’s pitching hand.
Odorizzi remained in the game and fired a six-pitch fifth without any outward discomfort. Chad Pinder and Elvis Andrus both struck singles against him to begin the sixth. Pitching coach Josh Miller sauntered out for a mound visit. After about a minute, Miller signaled toward the dugout for manager Dusty Baker. Velazquez emerged with him. Odorizzi departed with the trainer a short time later.
Phil Maton stranded the two baserunners and saved Odorizzi from further damage. His ERA still rose almost a full run, from 3.56 to 4.25. Oakland took 45 swings against him and whiffed five times. The A’s spoiled 20 pitches foul, too, illustrating Odorizzi’s total inability to miss bats. He did not harness enough consistency with his slider to solve Oakland’s righthandedheavy lineup. Mistakes came at the worst time and the A’s did not miss them.
Former Astro Tony Kemp struck a flat cutter for a game-tying solo home run in the third. He hammered an elevated splitter for a two-run double during the four-run fourth, too. Kemp is now 7-for-14 lifetime against Odorizzi.
Assigning Odorizzi all blame for Monday’s loss is short-sighted. Houston’s humming offense could not solve a rookie swingman making his sixth major league start. Adam Oller brought an 8.56 ERA to the ballpark.
The Astros made him appear something far superior. Shortstop Jeremy Peña struck Oller’s ninth pitch of the game for a solo home run. He did not allow another hit until the fifth, minutes after Odorizzi’s implosion.
Oller, a Conroe native, departed in favor of reliever Domingo Acevedo. He induced a popout from Alex Bregman before trying a pickoff to first base. No one covered the bag.
The baseball trickled into the Coliseum’s cavernous foul ground. Peña scored from second base. Yordan Alvarez advanced from first to third. Right fielder Ramón Laureano’s throw struck him on the right ankle, momentarily hobbling Houston’s superstar slugger.
Acevedo plunked Yuli Gurriel with his next pitch. Gurriel stole second base with Alvarez on third. Catcher Sean Murphy’s throw did not reach second, allowing Alvarez to amble home as the third run and the Astros a prime chance to attack the A’s ineptitude.
Aledmys Díaz and Chas McCormick grounded out, removing the hope.