HOUSTON _ It was back to basics for the A's Saturday night, terrific starting pitching and a couple of home runs bringing an end to a five-game losing streak.
Andrew Triggs threw shutout ball for seven innings, striking out a career-high nine and Jed Lowrie and Khris Davis contributed the homers as Oakland turned back the American League-West leading Astros, 2-1.
Triggs, now 4-1 with a 1.84 ERA, faced men in scoring position in the first, third and fourth innings, but came up with three strikeouts with runners in scoring position and got better as he went along, setting down the final 10 men he faced in order before turning the game over to the Oakland bullpen.
Sean Doolittle allowed a solo homer to Jose Altuve in the eighth, but Santiago Casilla pitched a scoreless night for the save.
The A's, now 11-13, can climb back to within three games of the division leaders with a win in the Sunday series finale.
The Oakland offense, which has limped along at times of late, was going nowhere against Houston starter Joe Musgrove as he set down the first 10 batters he faced in order.
The 11th, however, was Lowrie, who jumped on a 3-1 pitch to carry it high and deep into the right field seats. His second home run gave the A's both their first base runner and first hit in addition to a 1-0 lead.
Lowrie came up an inning later with the idea of adding to the lead. Chad Pinder was on second base with two out when Lowrie singled to right. Josh Reddick got to the ball quickly and the former A's right fielder gunned a throw to the plate that just barely cut down Pinder.
Oakland bats went quiet again until the eighth inning when with Will Harris pitching in relief, Davis became the American League's second 10-homer man with an opposite-field rocket to right. The Yankees' Aaron Judge became the first AL player to get to 10 earlier in the day.
In his first start after being rocked for six runs in 42/3 innings against the Mariners last Sunday, Triggs was back to his form of his first three starts, although the first inning proved to be a challenge. Singles from Reddick and Altuve and a wild pitch had Triggs facing the heart of the Houston lineup with men on second and third.
He came back to strike out Carlos Correa and Carlos Beltran, both swinging, to keep the game scoreless, and settled in nicely after that. A single and a hit batter got him in a spot in the third and in the fourth a cannonade of a throw from right fielder Jaff Decker triggered a double play that kept Houston in check.
In all, three of Triggs strikeouts came with men in scoring position and four came to end innings.
And he continued to dominate left-handed hitters. The first hit he allowed was to Reddick, a lefty, but none of the other four. In his five starts Triggs hasn't allowed more than one hit to a lefty in any game. A year ago lefties averaged .277 against him. This year it's .088 (4 for 45).
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