HOUSTON _ The lower Kendall Graveman's pitches track, the higher his star rises.
The A's right hander locked in on the bottom of the strike zone again Saturday, pitching shutout ball into the ninth inning of a 3-2 win over the Astros.
After two hits off Graveman got the Astros going in the ninth, the A's turned to Ryan Dull, who hadn't allowed any of his 36 inherited runners to score all season, an ongoing record. The record came to an end on Jose Altuve's grounder to third, a run scoring as third baseman Tyler Ladendorf got the out at second base.
Dull wound up getting stung by a Luis Valbuena RBI single as a second run scored, but he came back to strike out Carlos Gomez to close out Graveman's fifth win of the season.
By being able to keep the Astros from elevating the ball, Graveman allowed just five hits while keeping his pitch count down to 93. He ran his winning streak to four while giving the A's (38-50) one of their best starts of the season.
He didn't walk anyone, allowed just one man as far as second base and struck out three.
Graveman, who had allowed no more than one run in three of his last five starts, has been better in recent starts at hitting the bottom of the strike zone on both sides of the plate. He retired the first 14 batters he faced, a streak that ended only on A.J. Reed's grounder that carried into right-center for a single.
The second-year right-hander, working on a three-game winning streak over the course of his last seven starts, needed just one pitch to get the final out of the fifth.
And after Marwin Gonzalez doubled with two out in the sixth, shortstop Marcus Semien came up with a nice play, cutting in front of the second base bag to grab Altuve's grounder before unleashing a throw to second base to end the inning.
Valbuena, who came up with the three-run homer that allowed the Astros to walk off with a win Friday, delivered the third Houston hit with a one-out singled in the seventh, but a nice snare on a grounder up the middle from Jed Lowrie began an inning-ending double play.
Astros starter Lance McCullers came into the game almost unbeatable (7-2, 1.97 in his career) at Minute Maid Park, but from the moment Stephen Vogt launched a solo homer with one out in the second, the A's had his number, although they could have capitalized more than they did.
The A's went on to load the bases with one out in the second, but McCullers came back to strike out Ladendorf and Coco Crisp.
Vogt made it 2-0 with an RBI single in the third after Josh Reddick singled and took second on a balk. Vogt would later come around to score on the last of three consecutive walks by McCullers, good for a 3-0 lead. But again the A's left the bases loaded.
