The Oakland A’s have suffered their fair share of brutal losses as they claw their way to the All-Star break. To lose a significant lead and game to the Houston Astros — slipping another step down the American League West standings — is one of them.
The A’s lost 9-6 on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park to start a crucial three-game series against a division rival they won’t see again until the final weeks of the regular season. While it may be early to jockey for the top spot in the division during the unofficial first half of the season, the outcome of this series could determine the A’s second half outlook. Can they begin the second half defending first place? Or will they be fighting down the stretch for a wild card spot yet again?
They’re 2-8 over their last 10 games and fell 4.5 games back of the Astros in the division.
Where it went wrong: An A’s starting rotation that came into the series with a league-leading 493 innings pitched was pitted against an offense with a 137 run differential and leads baseball in most major hitting categories. A little fatigue met dominance. And that won’t fly.
“It’s the time of year you’re trying to get to the All-Star break and try to catch a second wind and go from there,” A’s starter Chris Bassitt said. “Like I said, we had a win and they took it from us. And I gave it to them.”
Bassitt wasn’t himself during his 4 1/3 innings, second-shortest outing of the season. He gave up a season-high six runs, five courtesy of Yordan Alvarez on a pair of home runs. The first, a two-run home run, cut into the A’s three-run lead. The second came in the fifth inning, the game’s turning point. A three-run home run tied the game 6-6 and Bassitt got the hook.
Bassitt said he missed locations on the cutter and sinker he threw to Alvarez. Without life on his pitches, Bassitt can’t afford to miss locations to this Astros lineup.
“If you’re going to miss locations you’d better have life to the pitches and I had nothing today,” Bassitt said. “That whole lineup is disgusting. But when you don’t have your stuff, good luck.”
Bassitt’s six earned runs were the most he’s allowed all season and his 4 1/3 innings was his shortest outing since he went four against the Seattle Mariners on June 1. Bassitt came into his start seeking a 10th win an a potential All-Star fill-in with a 3.04 ERA. He left it with his first loss since April 6 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. His six runs allowed snaps a 28-start streak in which Bassitt held opponents to four runs or fewer.
“He gave up six runs today, he hasn’t done that all year,” manager Bob Melvin said. “They put together some pretty good at bats, but there was a momentum swing in the fifth. We had first and third nobody out and couldn’t score and they came back with a three spot in the bottom half.”
In relief, J.B. Wendelken put a pair of runners on via hit and a walk and advanced them into scoring position with a wild pitch. Expert clean-up reliever Yusmeiro Petit couldn’t clean up this mess; Jose Altuve punched a two-run single that tipped off Elvis Andrus’ glove with the infield playing in and an open base. Houston took their first and final lead.
“I wish I had one more out or had to get one out and now he has to go through a tough part of the lineup,” Melvin said of Petit’s outing. “Have to throw strikes and be aggressive. That was a tough spot I put him in and I told him that.”
A little discombobulated: A sputtering offense that came into the game batting .193 as a team over their last nine games came out firing against Houston starter Framber Valdez.
Valdez was missing with his fastball location early and the A’s leapt, collecting a run on three hits from Ramón Laureano, Elvis Andrus and Matt Olson on his first four pitches. Chad Pinder and Jed Lowrie attacked with a pair of hits and two more runs to give the A’s a 3-0 lead. Stephen Piscotty, back from the IL, Laureano, Andrus and Olson rallied for three more in the next inning.
“We know he likes to establish his sinker and work in his changeup and curveball,” Andrus said. “So we did a great job today being aggressive and using that big field, the right side, and we were able to score a lot of runs early.”
Valdez made an adjustment and threw more curveballs and changeups earlier in the count to hold the A’s scoreless through the final three innings of his as his five-inning outing. That fifth inning proved to be the biggest momentum shift; Olson and Matt Chapman singled to put runners on the corners with no outs, but the A’s couldn’t get a run in.
At least the offense woke up for a crucial series; they know a .193 average won’t do in Houston.
“It was big, especially in this series,” Andrus said. “We know we need to score. That’s the only way you can beat this team, Houston, they score a lot of runs. Besides playing good defense and pitching, you have to score early. We’re happy we did it, but didn’t work out in the end.”
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A’s can’t hold four-run lead, lose ugly to Astros - Vacaville Reporter
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