Astros take series with A’s after walk-off home run.
Astros hit homer in ninth to claim final game of AL West showdown
HOUSTON >> Not much separated the A’s and Astros over a series with major playoff implications, but it was the Astros who came away extending their lead in the AL West.
Despite the troubling trend of Trevor Cahill’s bad road performances continuing, the A’s found a way to stay in the game. But the Astros were the club who found the clutch late hit this time around in Wednesday’s 5-4 victory as the A’s are now 2½ games behind Houston for first place in the AL West with 28 games to play.
“It was a spirited series. Really closely fought,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “Pretty evenly matched with both teams playing really hard, and at this time of year if I’m a fan watching this game, it’s pretty entertaining.”
After a dramatic late-inning hit by Nick Martini stuck a dagger in the Astros (82-51) the night before, Tyler White returned the favor with a walk-off homer off Jeurys Familia.
Cahill’s road struggles got worse as he turned in his shortest outing of the season, giving up four runs, three earned, on five hits over 3 1/3
innings. His six walks were a season-high, and the most the right-hander has issued in a start since walking six back on Sept. 1, 2014, as a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The home/road splits for Cahill are truly one of the more bizarre stats in baseball this season. He’s been brilliant in eight home starts at the Oakland Coliseum with a 0.85 ERA. Everywhere else — he’s gone 1-3 with a 7.02 ERA over nine road starts. In 17 starts overall, he’s now 5-3 with his ERA up to 3.60 on the year.
“It’s gotten to the point where it’s more than just a coincidence. His numbers at home are fantastic. I know he loves pitching off that mound, got a lot of foul territory there, and he’s had success. We’d like to see him get on a roll on the road, too, and you would think at some point it would even out. But to this point it has not.”
Cahill still doesn’t seem read too much into the total opposite numbers.
“I’ve never thought about it other than when you guys keep asking me about it,” Cahill said. “I literally don’t think about it at all. If you guys didn’t point it out, I probably wouldn’t even know, honestly.”
After the A’s (80-54) went ahead 3-2 in the third on Stephen Piscotty’s two-run double off Dallas Keuchel, Cahill began to fall apart in the fourth. He walked Yuli Gurriel to lead it off and followed that up by allowing four consecutive batters to reach base, including a walk of Alex Bregman with the bases loaded to give the Astros the lead before getting pulled for Shawn Kelley with just one out.
“I think we were just kind of overthinking it and trying to make perfect pitches,” A’s catcher Josh Phegley said. “He had better stuff than he thought ,and I don’t think he had the most confidence going into that start. Trying to make his pitches do things they were already doing and we just fell behind. That ended up costing us.”
Faced with a tough task against the Astros’ middle of the order, Kelley was able to strike out Jose Altuve, who struck out four times in a game for the first time in his eight-year career,
and induce an inning-ending groundout against Carlos Correa to keep the deficit at one run.
Kelley and Fernando Rodney, both acquired earlier this month in trades, have been lights out in the A’s bullpen. They’ve combined to throw 18 2/3 innings of scoreless relief, with Rodney also keeping the game tied Wednesday with a scoreless eighth inning.
The A’s managed to tie the game in the seventh without recording a hit. Three straight walks and a Piscotty hit by pitch resulted in a run, but the A’s left the bases loaded.
A promising trip for Khris Davis that began with him blasting home run No. 39 in his first at-bat of the trip last week in Minnesota ended ugly. The A’s slugger finished the seven-game trip going just 2 for 29, striking out in a big ninthinning spot with one out following a double by Jed Lowrie with the game tied.
“This has been a tough park for him here, but I still think his season has been a much more consistent hitter,” Melvin said. “Sometimes you can press a little bit when you get to a certain number, sitting at 39 right now. But we’ll get back home, and I know he’s comfortable there. He’ll break out of it.”
Ramón Laureano continued to shine on defense as he made a play reminiscent of Willie Mays’ 1954 World Series over-the-shoulder catch in the second inning. Tony Kemp drove a ball that looked to be headed for the wall and likely extra bases to center field, but the speedy Laureano, who was playing shallow, raced back to make the catch. Max Stassi, who had walked before Kemp, was already rounding second at the time Laureano made the catch and raced back to first.
Laureano slipped on the warning track, but fired off a ball from deep center that still nearly got Stassi out at first, which would have surpassed his play in Anaheim a couple of weeks ago that many considered the best play in MLB this season.
“That’s the Willie Mays play. Vic Wertz all over again,” Melvin said. “Now you see it kind of fairly often. When it was hit, I didn’t think he had a chance at it. Being from the Bay Area, that’s the one I thought about given the style of play.”