LOS ANGELES — Oakland finally made it to a five-game series after coming back to win the wild-card series against the White Sox last week, but the A’s ugly, frustrating postseason trends of yesteryear have reared up again in the Division Series.
Oakland’s starters can’t keep the ball in the park, and the A’s offense has done little aside from the occasional homer, seldom with men on base. The Astros, on the other hand, have taken advantage of every A’s mistake and put baserunners on in nearly every inning, placing constant pressure on Oakland’s pitchers and defense.
In Tuesday’s 5-2 Game 2 victory, Houston hit two homers off A’s starter Sean Manaea, who allowed four runs in all, and George Springer’s second homer came off one of the league’s most reliable relievers, Yusmeiro Petit. Oakland got solo homers from Khris Davis and Chad Pinder — a blast to the back row in right center — and basically nothing else. The A’s didn’t have a baserunner from the fifth through eighth innings, and had no at-bats with men in scoring position all day.
“We knew coming in this would be a dogfight,” Pinder said. “They have great talent, they’re not going to just roll over. We’ve got to find a way to pull ourselves out of this - one big hit, one big inning. We have to find it somehow within us to do that.”
The A’s — who have advanced to the ALCS just once in their past 10 postseasons — bounced back to win two games against the White Sox last week after dropping Game 1. Eight teams have come back to win best-of-five Division Series after losing the first two games, most recently the Yankees in 2017. There also were two comebacks down 0-2 when the League Championship Series was a best-of-five (Padres in 1984, Brewers in 1982).
“I’ve been up 2-0 before. You’ve got to put them away when you have a chance,” Houston manager Dusty Baker said. “If you let them off the mat, these guys know how to win. We’d like to win it tomorrow and not get any drama in Game 4 or 5. We know it’s not done yet.”
Oakland has fallen behind 0-2 in seven previous series and has not prevailed in any of them and twice the team was swept.
Manaea was working on 12 days of rest after not pitching in the wild-card series. He had a 2.65 ERA over his final six starts, which included a win over Houston on Sept. 10 when he went seven innings and allowed two hits and one run.
Manaea’s outing Tuesday, however, brought back memories of his previous postseason start: last year’s wild-card loss to Tampa Bay, when the lefty allowed three homers and four runs in two-plus innings.
“Same,” Manaea said of this year’s effort compared to last year’s. “It’s my job to go out there and pitch and I didn’t do that today. It sucks, but I know this team will figure this thing out and turn it around.”
Tuesday, former Oakland outfielder Josh Reddick factored again, recording Houston’s first hit with one out in the third, and with two outs, red-hot Astros leadoff man George Springer hit a shot out to left center, erasing the 1-0 lead Oakland had taken on Davis’ second-inning home run.
The Astros tacked on another in the fourth, when Michael Brantley doubled, went to third on an infield single by Kyle Tucker and scored on a groundout by Carlos Correa.
Pinder cut the difference to one again with his monster shot off Framber Valdez, but Martin Maldonado went deep off Manaea the next inning, Petit took over and Springer added his second shot.
Valdez went seven innings and allowed five hits, a walk and the two runs, and Enoli Paredes worked the eighth and Ryan Pressly the ninth for Houston.
Springer is 6-for-9 with the two homers and he has driven in four runs and scored three in the series.
Susan Slusser covers the A’s for The San Francisco Chronicle. Email: sslusser@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @susanslusser
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October 07, 2020 at 06:40AM
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A’s lose Game 2 in ALDS as Sean Manaea has another rough postseason start - San Francisco Chronicle
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