A series of missed scoring opportunities left the A’s with a frustrating 4-3 loss to the Houston Astros on Wednesday night in Houston. With that, the A’s lose the series and fall 5.5 games back of the Astros for first in the American League West.
Home Run Derby participant Matt Olson hit his first home run since June 20, his 21st of the season, to give the A’s an early 1-0 lead off Luis Garcia. But Oakland didn’t get runners in scoring position against the Astros right-handed starter until the fifth inning with Stephen Piscotty’s walk and Seth Brown reaching on a force out at second and Chad Pinder’s double. Tony Kemp struck out looking to end the threat.
The A’s worked behind a deficit until Cristian Javier replaced Garcia and Elvis Andrus smacked a home run into the Crawford Boxes. Oakland loaded the bases with no outs on Olson’s walk and back-to-back hits from Ramón Laureano and Jed Lowrie. A run scored on a wild pitch tied the game and was the only one they could squeeze when Laureano was thrown out at home by left fielder Michael Brantley on Sean Murphy’s fly ball.
The A’s had runners in scoring position with fewer than two outs again in the seventh, but Andrus’ fly ball wasn’t deep enough to score pinch-runner Skye Bolt from third — third base coach Mark Kotsay decided against testing Brantley’s arm again — and Olson flew out to end the threat.
Sean Manaea kept the powerful Astros lineup in check, caught up by one trouble inning that started with Pinder’s throwing error escalated with Jose Altuve launching a 3-1 fastball into left field for a three-run home run. Manaea shouldered two of those runs as earned and went on to retire 11 straight.
Kyle Tucker hit the Astros go-ahead home run in the seventh inning on a mistake pitch. Manaea left the game with two outs in the seventh having given up just four hits, six strikeouts, no walks and three earned runs — two swings on two mistakes did him in.
