Chavez, Mujica deliver in win
Jesse Chavez’s spot in Oakland’s rotation was teetering a bit, and the A’s were monitoring Saturday’s start closely.
No pressure. And Chavez, wearing high yellow socks with green stirrups that emphasized his skinny legs, pitched as if he hadn’t a care in the world and for the most part stumped the first-place Astros. Chavez worked seven innings in Oakland’s 2-1 victory, Houston’s run coming on a homer by Preston Tucker in the fourth.
“It’s a good confidence builder after what happened last time,” said Chavez, who allowed six runs
in 32⁄3 innings his previous start and had a 6.23 ERA over his previous seven starts.
His last time out, Chavez said, he was pausing before his delivery, which put his weight back on his heels a bit too much, flattening out his pitches. “Today was better, misses down — and not up,” he said. “A good plus for me, a good sign.”
“The most impressive thing to me was he got through the middle innings because it looked to me like he was struggling a little bit,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “I was thinking about pulling the plug on him, but the sixth and the seventh were his two best innings.”
And the A’s actually got a game-saving performance out of the bullpen in a one-run game: Closer Edward Mujica took over in the ninth with one on and no outs and got two long flyballs and a Jose Altuve groundout to end the game — but Mujica made it interesting by balking pinch-runner Jake Marisnick to second base with one out.
It was the A’s first save since July 11 and Mujica’s first of the season. He took over as closer when Tyler Clippard was traded to the Mets at the end of July.
“Mujica looked as good I’ve seen him,” catcher Stephen Vogt said. “He was aggressive, he had tenacity, he had conviction when he was throwing the ball.”
The Astros went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Newest A’s player Danny Valencia, usually a platoon player used against left-handers, was in the lineup against a right-hander, Collin McHugh, and batting cleanup no less after his two-run homer one day earlier. He provided both of Oakland’s RBIs with a double in the first inning.
“He’s been great knocking in runs, and that’s what you want guys in the middle of the order to do,” Melvin said of Valencia, who joined the A’s on Monday.
Valencia was the designated hitter, not a job he does often, and he said he picked Billy Butler’s brain about how to handle the role. “You’ve got to try to stay loose,” Valencia said. “He was giving me his pointers. You’ve got to move around a lot.”
Valencia is 5-for-12 with the A’s since being claimed on waivers from Toronto, where he had been designated for assignment.
“I’ve played against him long enough to know he can do that damage anywhere he goes,” Vogt said. “I’m surprised we got him — he has some pretty outrageous numbers to be DFA’d.”
Coco Crisp left after the second inning; a medication he’s taken made him nauseated, Melvin said, and he’d nearly passed out. Melvin expects Crisp to be in the lineup Sunday.