Couture named Sharks’ new captain.
A’s score three runs off Astros’ Verlander, then hold on to win series at Minute Maid Park
HOUSTON » The A’s beat the Astros, 3-2, on Thursday night to take a 3-1 series win at Minute Maid Park. The A’s are 6-2 in their past eight games against the Astros. Liam Hendriks got his 21st save, stranding the tying run on third in the ninth.
Justin Verlander is a problem for everyone — a probable Cy Young candidate, after all — and the A’s are no exception. Only Khris Davis and Mark Canha have found overall, relative success against the Astros’ powerful right-hander.
Roles switched up on Thursday. Marcus Semien, who’s built a career offensive year on a devastatingly patient approach at the plate, got two first-pitch singles and Matt Olson hit a two-run home run — his second career homer against Verlander — to give the A’s an early lead. It was Oakland’s first win over the ace since 2013.
Semien’s aggressive approach contrasted the rest of his teammates, who worked Verlander for two walks and 73 pitches through the first three innings.
Verlander still finished with 11 strikeouts through a six-inning start.
Jose Altuve hit a home run off Yusmeiro Petit in the eighth inning. A. J. Puk came in to face Yordan Alvarez, who hit a broken- bat single away from the shift to put the tying run in scoring position.
Blake Treinen took over and could not find the strike zone. He walked Aledmys Diaz to load the bases and got Kyle Tucker out swinging to strand them.
• Hendriks broke out this year not only as the A’s surprise closer in place of a struggling Blake Treinen, but also one of the premier closers in all of baseball. His 3.4 WAR leads all relievers and, since taking over the role officially on June 21, Hendriks’ 20 saves leads the league on the back of a 1.75 ERA.
Nothing quite puts his season in perspective like this stat, though: Hendriks is just six strikeouts away from passing Hall of Famer Rollie Fingers for most strikeouts in a single season for a reliever in A’s history.
Hendriks sits at 110. Fingers had 115 in 1975. His 113 total strikeouts that he reached in the A’s 5- 3 win over the Astros on Wednesday also broke Damien Moss’ single-season record for most strikeouts by an Australian pitcher.
“Been able to put together enough good pitches at the right times to make them count, and it’s a cool little thing and hopefully this can get some credit back home for Australian baseball and hopefully we can get more kids over here,” Hendriks said. “And hopefully it doesn’t stand too long, hopefully it doesn’t last 17 years and a guy can come up and blow that out of the water.”
On top of a season that more than exceeded expectations for a onceDFA’d Hendriks, the pitcher was also picked as the A’s Roberto Clemente Award nominee. The award bestowed on one individual MLB player who best represents the game through extraordinary character, community involvement, philanthropy and positive contributions, both on and off the field,