OAKLAND, Calif. _ Khris Davis accomplished something that hasn't been done by an A's player in over a decade.
After knocking in two runs with a single in the sixth inning of Saturday's 11-1 win over the Houston Astros in the first game of a doubleheader, Davis surpassed the 100-RBI mark for the second consecutive season.
The last A's players to register back-to-back 100-RBI seasons were Miguel Tejada from 2000-03 and Eric Chavez from 2001-03.
The six runs were more than enough support for rookie Daniel Gossett, who turned in one of the best outings of his career. Against a first-place Astros squad that is full of dangerous hitters up and down the lineup, Gossett kept them off balance as he struck out a career-high seven batters through six innings of work.
By no means was it a dominant outing. Gossett allowed at least a baserunner in all but one of the six innings, but with the exception on an RBI double allowed to Alex Bregman in the fifth, Gossett managed to preserve an early 3-0 lead that was provided by his offense.
It was a nice bounce back for Gossett, who lasted only 3 2/3 innings in his previous start. Gossett was pulled after walking Derek Fisher to begin the seventh and received a nice ovation from the fans at the Coliseum as he handed the ball to A's manager Bob Melvin and walked off the mound.
The A's tagged Charlie Morton for three runs in the second. Matt Olson led off with a double that bounced off the top of the wall in right-center and was later brought home on a triple by Matt Chapman. Friday night's hero Boog Powell followed up the triple with a single to drive in Chapman and scored himself from third on bad throw home from Morton on a grounder by Marcus Semien.
The game really got out of hand after some poor command from the Astros bullpen. Five of the A's 11 runs scored on walks, including four straight walks with the bases loaded in the eighth to put the score completely out of hand. The five bases-loaded walks on the afternoon tied the A's record for most in a single game, set on Sept. 5, 2008 at Baltimore.
