Before the season, Matt Chapman proclaimed he expected the Oakland A’s to compete for a division title again. He even said he wouldn’t be surprised if the A’s won 100 games. Saturday morning after winning just their second game in nine tries, Chapman didn’t waver on his preseason projection.
“I’m still confident in our team,” Chapman said. “I know what our team is capable of, we had a few guys go down with some injuries but we played two really good baseball teams and I was very confident in our team at the beginning of the year and I still am.”
That confidence is starting to come to fruition. After struggling to find a win against the Houston Astros this year, the A’s went to Houston and snatched their first series win with a 7-3 victory over the Astros at Minute Maid Park on Saturday afternoon.
A once stagnant offense rolled Friday’s momentum into Saturday’s rubber match against Jose Urquidy. Singles by Ramón Laureano, Jed Lowrie and Matt Olson resulted in the A’s first run, and Sean Murphy added on with an RBI single — his first hit of the season.
They pieced together a two-out rally the following inning when Mark Canha knocked a single and Laureano crushed a home run 415 feet with a 106.5 exit velocity to extend their lead to 4-0.
That was plenty of cushion for starter Frankie Montas, who cruised through six scoreless innings — only allowing one hit and one walk to the last 13 batters he faced before giving up a solo home run to Kyle Tucker to start the seventh inning on his 100th pitch.
Montas threw primarily sinkers and four-seamers in the first inning, working his way out of a jam by handing Yordan Alvarez his fifth straight strikeout. Montas didn’t go to his splitter much, throwing it nine times total while throwing his slider 21% of the time.
The Astros wouldn’t give up the series without a fight. Once Montas departed, Sergio Romo hit a batter and Jose Altuve doubled him home for the Astros' second run. Jake Diekman was tapped to face left-hander Michael Brantley, who hit Diekman's first pitch for an RBI triple to cut the A’s lead in half.
Seth Brown, in at DH while Mitch Moreland nurses a sore hamstring, answered back with his first career home run in the eighth inning. The slugger couldn’t seem to clear the fences during his 2019 big league debut, where he batted .293 with eight doubles.
