Houston’s turnabout is role model for Oakland
HOUSTON — The Astros simply own the A’s to the point that they are now Oakland’s inspiration.
In the first two games at Minute Maid Park, Oakland has scored just one run, and after a 3-0 loss Saturday that dropped the A’s to a season-high 17 games below .500, manager Bob Melvin chewed his team out for several minutes, according to sources.
The A’s had plenty of baserunners — six hits, three walks, a hit batter — but they grounded into five double plays and lined into another, and they struck out five times. Houston starter Collin McHugh worked six scoreless innings.
“He threw the ball well . ... I expect us to score some runs tonight,” Melvin said in his postgame interview session. “Just not very good swings at times. He threw the ball pretty well, but I expect us to hit some balls harder than we did.”
The last play of the night, naturally, was a double-play grounder by Ryon Healy, who initially was ruled safe at first, but the call was overturned on replay. Houston didn’t have a challenge left, so it was a crewchief review. Game over, and the celebratory cannon, which went off erroneously when Healy was called safe, went off a second time. “That’s what it’s for, I’ve done it before, too,” Melvin said of asking for a crew chief ’s review.
The A’s have dropped 19 of their past 21 games against the Astros. Just four years ago, Oakland took 15 of 19 games from Houston en route to the division title. Now the Astros are in first and the A’s in last.
“How quickly it can flip,” Melvin said. “A few years ago, we were doing to them what
they’re doing to us now. It doesn’t feel too terribly good on the other side.”
Houston has turned into Oakland’s role model; vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane recently cited the Astros’ rebuild when discussing the A’s plans.
“You have to look at that and say we have a group of younger guys similar to what they had. We’re going to have some pretty good draft picks here too, the next couple of years,” Melvin said. “Hopefully, that is a template we can look at and hopefully be as successful as they are now.”
Astros manager A.J. Hinch can see the comparisons between his own club of several seasons ago and the upcoming crop of A’s players.
“The youthfulness and the learning at this level reminds me of the early years here,” Hinch said. “The need to continue to develop at this level while they’re playing and the need to get experience, that’s very similar. Patience is hard when you’re seeing some mistakes and different struggles with things you have to deal with at this level, but talent wins out,
over time.”
A’s starter Kendall Graveman, like Sean Manaea the previous night, pitched well, allowing just two runs in six innings, the second consecutive start in which Graveman gave up two runs. He walked Jose Altuve and Josh Reddick to open the fourth, Yuli Gurriel singled to load the bases and Marwin Gonzalez sent in Altuve and Reddick with a base hit just past Jed Lowrie at second.
“We limited the damage in that inning or it really could have gotten out of hand there,” said Graveman, who was making his fourth start since coming off the disabled list.
Center fielder Boog Powell prevented another run in the fifth when he threw out Alex Bregman at the plate trying to score from second on Altuve’s single to center. “That caught me off guard,” catcher Bruce Maxwell said. “I haven’t played with him for a long time, and I really didn’t expect him to make a big play like that at home. He was fairly deep, too.”
Ryan Dull gave up a homer to Bregman in the eighth, the first earned run he has allowed in eight outings at Houston. Susan Slusser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser