AL West battle turns into home run derby
10 of the game’s 15 hits exit the ballpark with Chapman walloping the last blow in the 8th
OAKLAND, Calif. — If one game can encompass this era of baseball, the Astros and Athletics authored it on Thursday night.
Two pitchers with no-hitter pedigree had no hope. The teams combined to crush 10 home runs, an Oakland Coliseum record, to turn a typical Thursday matchup into something out of a video game.
Matt Chapman’s eighth-inning solo shot against Astros reliever Chris Devenski served as the deciding blow. The A’s won 7-6, trimming the Astros’ American League West lead to 8½ games with a bevy of blasts befitting of this baffling time in the sport.
Some say the baseballs are juiced. Foremost among them is Justin Verlander. He watched Thursday’s absurdity unfold in the third-base dugout. On Friday, he will enter this ballpark and pitch against Oakland’s potent lineup, one which took every advantage of the conditions with which it is so familiar.
A’s starter Mike Fiers and his
Astros’ counterpart, Aaron Sanchez, sailed through three scoreless innings. They combined to face one over the minimum, showing briefly the talent that connects these two righthanders. The two men are the only Astros to start a no-hitter inside Minute Maid Park.
Oakland Coliseum created an environment on Thursday where such a thought was lunacy. Only five of the 15 total hits in the game didn’t exit the ballpark.
First-pitch temperature was 82 degrees. Flags in right field stood still. Not a hint of humidity hung in the air, aiding the flight of the five home runs each team socked.
Michael Brantley and Carlos Correa crushed two apiece. Correa’s second solo shot in the seventh was the 100th of his career. Correa, Alex Rodriguez and Cal Ripken, Jr. are the only three shortstops to tally 100 home runs prior to turning 25.
Alex Bregman’s two-run shot in the second inning was the Astros’ only non-solo home run. Matt Olson managed a three-run home run in the fourth, taking advantage of a mistake Sanchez will long regret.
In his first two starts, Sanchez’s new teammates spoiled him with 32 runs of support. He faced the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles, two tanking teams actively trying to lose. Encountering the Athletics and opposing their best starting pitcher presented a new challenge entirely.
Sanchez did not seize it. He yielded six earned runs and did not survive the sixth inning. Through four innings, the A’s struck seven balls in play harder than 101 mph, feasting on a fastball Sanchez did not command and spitting on a curveball he could not locate for strikes.
In the second, he yielded a double to Robbie Grossman. Chapman loomed. Sanchez induced a chopper back to the pitcher’s mound. He leapt, snagged the baseball and — for some reason — threw to second base. Grossman dove back in time.
Chapman jogged to first. Olson arrived and ran the count full. Sanchez spotted a two-seam fastball on the outer half of the plate. The first baseman crushed it to the opposite field for a three-run homer.