San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Frustrations mount as season nears end
HOUSTON — Tony Kemp turned on a Ryne Stanek fastball and drove it to right-center. Kyle Tucker eyed it as he neared the wall. Dimensions make Minute Maid Park an adventure. Earlier, Jason Castro had hit a routine flyball that sneaked over the left-field wall for a home run. Khris Davis hit an arcing ball that struck a ceiling beam and fell into the glove of Yordan Alvarez for an out.
Tucker sized up Kemp’s drive and leaped. He landed and jogged toward the infield, not revealing the ball in his glove. Kemp didn’t need to see it. He leaned over in frustration at first base, robbed of a game-tying home run.
This ballpark could serve as backdrop for drama this month. In handing the A’s a 10-4 loss Saturday, the Astros secured home-field advantage for their first-round playoff series. For the A’s, it is simply where the curtain will drop on their season Sunday. Like Kemp’s drive, their efforts fell just short.
“That was a big shift,” manager Bob Melvin said. “It’s also a big shift when Khris Davis’ ball ends up hitting the roof.”
Umpires conferred after Davis’ fourth-inning flyball and ruled him out. Melvin said ground rules state a ball is in play if it hits the roof in fair territory and dead if it hits in foul ground. His argument was Davis’ drive, which left his bat at 107 mph, was going to be a home run.
“That ball is going to be so far over the fence that you would think common sense would rule and MLB would have something like in Tampa where they’d have a line or some mark up there to show you what a home run would be,” Melvin said. “Unfortunately we didn’t catch a break there.”
Michael Brantley hit a tworun triple in Houston’s half of the sixth inning that ended the night, and season, for James Kaprielian. The right-hander threw 31⁄3 relief innings Saturday, allowing three hits and striking out five of the first nine batters he faced. He finished with a 4.07 ERA in 24 outings, all but three starts, totaling 123 strikeouts and 105 hits allowed in 1191⁄3 innings.
“I think all in all he had a good year,” Melvin said. “We never thought we would get this kind of mileage out of him . ... At one point in time (he) was pitching as well as anybody on our team.”
Starter Paul Blackburn allowed six runs in two-plus innings. Handed a two-run lead in the first, Blackburn saw Houston quickly erase it. Jose Altuve lined a leadoff single. Alex Bregman drew a walk. Alvarez fell behind 0-2, reached for a curveball below the strike zone and pulled it 375 feet for a three-run homer.
Castro added a solo homer to the short left-field porch in the second inning that traveled 326 feet and had an .040 expected batting average, per Statcast. Yuli Gurriel hit a 375-foot homer to left-center that chased Blackburn.
The right-hander made nine starts for the A’s down the stretch, the last raising his ERA to 5.87.
“Today was obviously really bad, and that happens,” Blackburn said. “It just sucks that it had to be the last one of the year. But, yeah, it’s just something you’ve got to keep pushing through and use that as fuel in the offseason.”
Kemp hounded Astros starter Jake Odorizzi, notching three hits. Kemp lined a leadoff single and scored on Starling Marte’s triple in the first. Chad Pinder doubled to right-center to score Marte. Another Kemp single scored Sean Murphy in the fifth. Kemp was thrown out twice on the basepaths. But an RBI single in the eighth marked his first career four-hit game.
“I need to clean up some baserunning things, and hopefully I’ll fix that tomorrow,” Kemp said. “But hopefully we can come out here tomorrow and get a win.”