Long balls costly, but Manaea rebounds
HOUSTON — Sean Manaea’s awful August took a better turn Friday, when the A’s left-hander faced one of his favorite opponents: the AL West leaders.
Manaea typically is at his best against the Astros. On Friday, he put together his strongest outing in weeks, bedeviled by only two stray home run pitches and a wild pitch that led to another run. He took the loss, however, his third in four starts, because Houston starter Dallas Keuchel was typically superb in the Astros’ 3-1 victory at Minute Maid Park.
The Astros have taken 11 of the first 13 games between the teams this season, and Oakland has dropped 18 of the past 20 overall against Houston. The A’s fell a season-low 16 games below .500 at 53-69.
In Manaea’s previous start, he’d lasted just one-third of an inning, giving up six hits and six
runs. On Friday, he allowed six hits, a walk and three runs in six innings, and he struck out two. “That’s not an easy lineup to face, especially with a lot of right-handed bats,” A’s third baseman Matt Chapman said. “He gave us a chance to stay in that game . ... I thought he did a great job of bouncing back.”
Manaea is the one A’s player to generally thrive against the Astros, entering the day with a 2.13 ERA and .207 batting average allowed in seven career starts against them.
He allowed one hit through the first 10 batters, but with two outs in the third, Alex Bregman went the other way on an 0-2 fastball, parking it into the seats in right. The next batter, Jose Altuve, stepped to the plate 3-for-18 lifetime against Manaea with zero RBIs. Altuve fell behind 0-2 before ripping a homer to left.
“We were trying to go up and in and I left it right over the plate,” Manaea said. “As soon as I let go of it, I kind of knew it was going to be a bad pitch.”
The Astros’ other run off Manaea came in the sixth, when Yuli Gurriel singled and went to second on a wild pitch. That put him in position to score on Josh Reddick’s twoout base hit to center.
All in all, though, it was a comparatively good evening for Manaea, who’d allowed 18 runs, 13 earned, in his previous three August starts. His fastball remained a tick lower than it was earlier in the year, hovering around 91 mph.
“This game was huge for me to bounce back, especially after the last three starts,” he said. “Overall, I was happy with it. I’ll try to build off this.”
Manaea said he was trying to work inside more against righthanded hitters. He also tried to avoid overthinking his mechanics. “I was trying to let it loose and not worry too much about the little things,” he said. “I just threw everything out the window and let my arm take care of everything.”
Keuchel was making his fifth start since coming off the disabled list; he had two stints of missed time with a neck problem. He was his usual dominant self against Oakland, allowing three hits and a walk in seven innings. He struck out three and induced 16 groundballs with his trusty sinker, including a double-play ball from Chad Pinder to end the seventh.
Over his past 12 starts against the A’s, Keuchel is 5-1 with a 1.64 ERA.
Matt Joyce homered off reliever Chris Devenski with one out in the eighth, Joyce’s 18th of the season, his most since hitting 18 in 2013 and one shy of his career high in 2011.
He also made an excellent catch in the fourth, leaping at the track in left for a drive by Max Stassi. “I didn’t think he was going to catch that ball,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “You try to take the best route you can and throw your glove up at the last moment and hope it goes in.”