Houston lets one slip away
HOUSTON — Roberto Osuna turned to watch it go, his mouth agape. A.J. Hinch did too, with a finger pressed to his lips. The crowd groaned before going silent.
No words. None were needed to explain the shock of seeing Matt Olson’s three-run homer ruin Wade Miley’s exquisite eight innings and hammer Osuna with a fourth blown save.
Miley threw 51⁄3 perfect innings, got out of the seventh despite allowing three baserunners, then tried to complete a shutout in the ninth.
Then the lefthander walked the leadoff batter and allowed the tying run to reach on a single. Before the ball was thrown back into the infield, Hinch vaulted the dugout steps to remove Miley, who exited to roars for his efforts, but set Osuna up to fail.
“It’s in your fingertips,” Miley said of seeing the win slip away. “It’s right there.”
From leading 2-0 to trailing 3-2 on Olson’s swing, the Astros were about to end their Tuesday evening swiftly in misery. Instead, it was delayed.
Aledmys Diaz tied the game with a sacrifice fly in the ninth, but Colin McHugh ultimately lost it in the 11th as Oakland’s Ramón Laureano redeemed himself with an RBI ground-rule double. Two runs would have scored on the play if not for an Astros challenge that determined the ball got lodged in the outfield wall, which forced a runner to return to third.
Yusmeiro Petit earned the win in relief with a perfect 11th inning as the A’s prevailed 4-3.
“Sometimes baseball will make you sick to your stomach,” Hinch said. “Tonight’s a night like that.”
Laureano had given the Astros the lead with a misplay in the second inning when he raced in with Yuli Gurriel’s low line drive to center in his sights and Michael Brantley’s tag-up from third base on his mind.
Laureano overran and slid past the ball, and it rolled to the wall. Brantley jogged in and Gurriel sprinted around for an insidethe-park home run.
It was Gurriel’s 20th homer of the season and sixth during a 12
game hitting streak.
The misplay prevented A’s starter Mike Fiers from keeping pressure on Miley. Fiers, who was on Houston’s 2017 World Series team, subdued his former team for 72⁄3 innings. His outing ended because of another, more embarrassing mistake by Laureano.
Laureano hesitated and tripped trying to throw the ball into the infield, which let Jose Altuve move into scoring position. Fiers punched his mitt in frustration and left with a loss looming.
Meanwhile, Miley’s perfect stretch more closely resembled a breezy hammock nap.
He got outs on an average of fewer than four pitches. He cleared the fifth inning in two minutes.
With the help of Fiers’ efficiency, the game was halfway done in about one hour.
The fast pace made Miley’s chase feel placid. The crowd did not sag when A’s catcher Josh Phegley lined a single with one out in the sixth.
Fans stood up to applaud Miley, and three minutes later, they cheered his walk toward the dugout and stranding of Phegley, a meaningless runner in the lefthander’s masterful start.
Miley allowed three more runners in the seventh, but two ground balls meant they, too, could not find a way to score. His eighth inning, which completed at the two-hour mark in the game, was like his first five — quick, quiet and perfect. Osuna was warm and ready to start the ninth. The bullpen door was left open. When the closer did not emerge, Miley returned to the mound instead.
A leadoff walk on five pitches to Marcus Semien suggested Miley was “guiding” the ball, Hinch said. Osuna got warm for a second time.
“It wasn’t that I was tired, it’s that I wasn’t aggressive,” Miley said.
Miley threw a backdoor cutter out of the zone to Matt Chapman. Chapman reached across the plate and punched it to right field.
Miley had not allowed a hit to Olson in five previous at-bats. Hinch later said he did not favor the lefty-on lefty matchup once he saw Miley put the first two runners on base.
Osuna got ahead 0-2 on Olson, but he served up a fastball in the upper-middle part of the zone, ideal for launching a 394-foot moonshot.
Osuna was not available for comment after the game. He exited the ballpark before reporters were allowed in the clubhouse, the team said.
“It’s a bad feeling for me, for the players, for the fans,” Hinch said.