A’s bounce back to pound Astros, hit six homers in 21-7 romp

AMERICAN LEAGUE ATHLETICS 21, ASTROS 7

HOUSTON — Matt Olson and Sean Murphy both homered twice, and the Oakland Athletics tagged Wade Miley for seven runs in the first inning and scored a season high in a 21-7 rout of the Houston Astros on Tuesday night.

After being blanked in a lopsided loss on Monday, Oakland recovered to win its seventh of nine and remained ahead of Cleveland for the second AL wild-card spot.

The Astros were coming off a 21-1 win over Seattle on Sunday and a 15-0 thrashing of Oakland on Monday in which they hit seven homers.

But on Tuesday, the A’s had a season-best 25 hits and built a 7-0 lead in the first inning without an extra-base knock. They still ended up tying a season high with six homers after not hitting any in their previous two games.

Khris Davis hit Oakland’s first long ball in the second inning. Olson went deep in the third and added another homer in a six-run fourth that also featured blasts by Sean Murphy and Marcus Semien to push the lead to 17-2. The A’s set a franchise record for runs scored through the first four innings.

Murphy homered again in the fifth, and Semien added an RBI double.

All nine Oakland starters had at least two hits, and six players finished with three each. Olson and Murphy had three hits and four RBIs apiece and Davis and Semien drove in three runs each.

Olson has a career-high 31 homers this season, joining Mark McGwire (eight times) and Jason Giambi (twice) as the only Oakland third basemen to top 30.

The Astros got two homers each from George Springer and Martin Maldonado to give them a franchise-record 252 this season as their five-game winning streak ended. Houston became the first team in the majors to score 20 or more runs in a game and allow 20 or more runs in a different game in a three-game span since Aug. 6-7, 1894, when the Brooklyn Bridegrooms did it, according to STATS.

Tanner Roark (10-8) yielded eight hits and five runs in 52/3 innings for his third straight win.

AP/DAVID J. PHILLIP Houston Astros starting pitcher Wade Miley looks at the scoreboard as he walks toward the dugout Tuesday after being pulled during the first inning against the Oakland Athletics in Houston.