OAKLAND, Calif. _ They were two games under .500 and languishing in fourth place in the American League West midway through June. A month later, they had improved to 13 games over, but were still eight games back of first place.
All of that is irrelevant at this point. Now, with six weeks to go in the regular season, it's a horse-race in the AL West, with the upstart A's and the defending World Series champion Houston Astros all tied atop the division standings.
The A's belted eight doubles _ tying an Oakland record _ and received a sterling effort from pitcher Trevor Cahill to earn a 7-1 over the Astros on Saturday, as an announced Coliseum crowd of 32,204 reveled in seeing Oakland back in a tie for first place for the first time since the second day of the season.
Cahill allowed just one hit, a single to Yuli Gurriel in the second inning, before he retired 17 of the next 18 batters. On his 100th and last pitch of the game to end the seventh inning, Cahill got Marwin Gonzalez swinging on a curveball for his seventh strikeout.
Khris Davis doubled down the left field line to score two runs in the first inning, and connected on one of four Oakland doubles in the sixth as the A's scored three more runs to take a 5-0 lead.
Catcher Josh Phegley also doubled twice. His first, in the sixth inning, scored Stephen Piscotty from third base and knocked Astros starter Dallas Keuchel out of the game. The A's picked up nine hits off of Keuchel in 5 2/3 innings, with all five runs that they scored being earned.
Phegley's second double, in the eight, helped the A's tie an Oakland single-game record. The other time they had eight doubles in a game was Sept. 11, 2013 against the Minnesota Twins.
The A's have a chance to complete the sweep of the Astros _ and move into sole possession of first place _ on Sunday with Sean Manaea facing Justin Verlander.
