Rinse, wash, and repeat for the Houston Astros against the Oakland Athletics.
It didn’t take long for Sean Manaea to put the A’s in a hole. With one out in the first inning Kyle Tucker hit a solo home run. Astros starter Jose Urquidy in the bottom half of the inning gave up a leadoff double to Mark Canha, who then got to third on a wild pitch. Matt Olson couldn’t drive him in as he popped out to shallow right field. Jed Lowrie then doubled to tie the game.
Yet, it seemed like Oakland was going to have a much bigger inning. As Mitch Moreland walked and Matt Chapman singled to shallow center field to load the bases. Stephen Piscotty ended up striking out and Ka’ai Tom grounded out.
Manaea got the first two outs in the second. For the A’s it wasn’t a nice quick inning though as he ended up walking Myles Straw and Jason Castro made him pay with a two-run home run. Jose Altuve started off the third with a double, Manaea then struck out Tucker and Alex Bregman on a close 3-2 pitch. He then got ahead of Yordan Alvarez, yet then began to nibble and walked him.
Houston like it has done all season long made Manaea pay for that walk. Yuli Gurriel doubled to center field on a play Canha needed to make as he got a glove on the baseball yet it then bounced off the wall and back to him.
As for Urquidy he settled in nicely for the Astros. He at one point retired eight in-a-row before walking Chapman. Yet, he got Piscotty to fly out to center field, struck out Tom and Elvis Andrus flew out to right field.
Still Urquidy wasn’t able to make it threw five inning as Canha hit a one out triple that barely missed being a home run. Matt Olson knocked him in with an RBI ground out after Brandon Bielak came in.
The Astros didn’t waste anytime getting that run back as Yuli Gurriel singled, Carlos Correa singled putting runners on first and third. Straw ended up on first with a fielder’s choice. Chapman then makes an inexcusable mistake by trying to flip the ball to Andrus rather than go to second himself and getting a double play to end the inning. Bob Melvin got forced to make a pitching change and in came Yusmeiro Petit who promptly served up a three-run home run to Chas McCormick, which was also his first career home run.
Note: This was the fifth consecutive game including playoffs that A’s pitching has allowed 8 or more runs to the Astros. Tom also pitched the ninth. He now has an inning of work and an ERA of 0.00 ERA before he has his first career hit.