Manaea makes more history vs. Astros

Pitchers’ duel turns into dominance by Athletics pitcher

HOUSTON — It was billed as a pitchers’ duel heading into it. But as the A’s roughed up Dallas Keuchel, Sean Manaea came out shining again.

In his first start since throwing a no-hitter against the Boston Red Sox, Manaea dazzled again as he managed to make even more history in an 8-1 blowout over the Astros.

The A’s left-hander held the Astros (17-10) hitless through the first three innings on Friday night, extending a streak that began with two perfect innings in the start before his no-hitter, making it 14 consecutive hitless innings. Manaea surpassed John “Blue Moon” Odom, who tossed 13 straight hitless innings in 1968, for the most consecutive innings without allowing a hit in Oakland history.

The streak ended with one out in the fourth inning, when Carlos Correa singled to right field to bring home George Springer, who had reached two batters earlier on an error by shortstop Marcus Semien, to give the Astros a 10 lead. It was the first hit Manaea had allowed since April 15 against the Seattle Mariners.

It was another brilliant outing for Manaea as he allowed just one unearned run on four hits and a walk with seven strikeouts over seven innings of work to improve to 4-2 on the season with American League-leading ERA of 1.03.

Manaea has established himself as the true ace of the staff and one of the best pitchers in baseball, having bested the likes of Felix Her-

nandez, Chris Sale, and now Keuchel in his past three starts.

Keuchel appeared to be matching Manaea’s brilliance early on, holding the A’s (1412) hitless through four innings, but that all changed in the fourth when Matt Chapman blasted a homer into the Crawford boxes in left field at Minute Maid Park to tie the game. The solo home run was Chapman’s sixth of the season.

Chad Pinder obliterated a first-pitch slider from Keuchel for a two-run shot to left in the sixth, and Mark Canha added on with a tworun homer in the seventh with an impressive oppositefield shot over the right-field wall. Keuchel finished seven innings, but the A’s tagged him for six runs on seven hits.

Jed Lowrie picked up his majors-leading 38th hit of the season in the eighth, a tworun double off the wall in right field that scored Pinder and Semien to put the A’s ahead 8-1.