Opening day win streak hits nine
OAKLAND, Calif. — Astros manager Dusty Baker hoped to get five strong innings from Zack Greinke on opening day.
The veteran righthander gave Houston a little more.
“He was kind of in midseason form,“Baker said.
Greinke pitched six shutout innings, Michael Brantley and Alex Bregman homered back-to-back in the eighth, and Houston hushed an unwelcoming crowd in beating the reigning AL West champion Oakland Athletics 8-1 on Thursday night.
“I’m not really worried about Greinke. He’s in much better shape this year. Last year, it didn’t look like we were going to come back,” Baker said.
A’s fans had to wait an extra year to properly boo the Astros, who were supposed to play their first road game of the coronavirus-shortened 2020 season here last spring. Houston’s sign-stealing scandal was brought to light by A’s righthander Mike Fiers against his former club, and many in the crowd chanted “Cheaters!”
Greinke hopes wins like this might help silence some of the haters.
“Got to hear some boos finally, that wasn’t that fun to listen to,” Greinke said, “but we played good so it ended up being better.”
Among the biggest cheers of the night: when Carlos Correa was drilled by Chris Bassitt’s fastball in the fourth inning with a runner in scoring position.
Backed by a two-run double from Yordan Alvarez, Greinke (1-0) allowed three hits, struck out four and didn’t walk a batter in Houston’s club-record ninth straight win on opening day. It marks the majors’ longest active streak, and the Astros joined only four other teams since 1900 to win nine consecutive season openers, according to the Elias Sports Bureau: Mariners (200715), Reds (1983-91), Mets (1975-83) and St. Louis Browns (1937-45).
The game drew a sellout of 10,436, with the ballpark at 20 percent capacity as baseball fans returned to the Coliseum for the first time since the A’s lost at home to Tampa Bay in the AL wild-card game on Oct. 2, 2019.
Houston lost all but one of eight games in Oakland in 2020 before eliminating the A’s in a four-game Division Series last fall.
Bassitt (0-1), a righthander who went 5-2 over 11 starts to emerge as the A’s ace last season, allowed three runs and four hits over 51⁄3innings. He struck out three and walked two.
“When it’s 1-0, you come out of the game, you’ve done your job,” manager Bob Melvin said.