Astros 6, A’s 5:
Houston completes sweep as Oakland’s momentum stalls at Coliseum after winning six of seven on road trip.
Oakland went nuts on the road last week, putting up runs with ease and getting some terrific outings from the team’s many young starters while winning six of seven.
In the three-game series with Houston at the Coliseum, the A’s got more strong pitching performances from their rookies, but the offense dried up.
Meanwhile, the Astros managed to come up with key hits and a couple of fortunate bounces and calls in completing the sweep. Plus, Houston has Evan Gattis, quickly joining the Beltre-Felix list as the A’s least favorite opponents: Gattis belted two homers Wednesday in the Astros’ 6-5 victory.
The A’s cut the difference to one with two outs in the ninth when Stephen Vogt’s bouncer got through second baseman Jose Altuve, allowing Chad Pinder to score. Pinch-runner Arismendy Alcantara was thrown out stealing to end the game, a call that was upheld on replay. “You talk about inches; that replay on the stolen base is a tough one,” manager Bob Melvin said,
“The ball just didn’t roll our way today,” catcher Bruce Maxwell said, adding of the entire series, “As a whole, it didn’t roll our way for a complete game, some unfortunate things happened here or there.”
Oakland starter Daniel Mengden was dealing the first four innings, much in the same vein as Jharel Cotton and Sean Manaea the previous two nights. Mengden retired the first 11 hitters, working quickly and efficiently. He gave up a run in the fifth, the result of two walks, a wild pitch and an RBI groundout, then gave up three in the sixth, including a two-run homer by Gattis, who routinely feasts on Oakland pitching.
“The pitch to Gattis is a good pitch, almost on the ground, and he golfs it out of the ballpark,” Melvin said. “You’ve got to give Gattis credit there.”
Gattis, who smoked a solo shot off the back wall in dead center in the eighth, has homered eight times against the A’s this season and 12 times in 133 lifetime at-bats against them.
Mengden, who has seven losses in eight starts at the Coliseum, was not subject to a restricted pitch count, but in the first two games of the series, Cotton and Manaea came out of the game an inning or two earlier than they might have otherwise with an eye toward ensuring their health for next season. Cotton allowed one run in six innings, Manaea none in six. Both nights, Houston put together game-winning rallies after the starters exited.
“Unfortunately, that affected things the last couple of nights, as well as those guys were pitching,” Melvin said.
Also as in other games of the series, bad bounces hurt the A’s, especially in an eventual onerun loss. With two on in the fourth, Brett Eibner hit what appeared to be a two-run double off Collin McHugh — but it bounced over the fence, and the second runner had to return to third. Jake Smolinski then struck out to end the inning.
In the seventh, George Springer doubled, went to third on a wild pitch by Zach Neal and raced home with a headfirst slide on a grounder to first by Yuli Gurriel. First baseman Yonder Alonso made a strong throw to the plate that arrived at the same time, and the A’s challenged the safe call, but replays showed Springer getting his hand in just a split second ahead of the tag by Maxwell.
The A’s scored eight runs in the three games and recorded only 13 hits.
Houston went 5-25 against Oakland in the regular season until April 26, 2014. Since then, the Astros hold a 31-21 edge.