The Houston Astros fell 4-3 to the Oakland Athletics on Tuesday night inside Minute Maid Park. The loss took twelve innings, as Houston could not capitalize on several opportunities to win the game late. They fall to 77-67 overall.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
The Astros started former Ragin’ Cajuns Spencer Arrighetti on the mound, who was coming off of a rough outing his last time out. He gave up two singles and a sacrifice fly for the games first run, driven in by Shea Langeliers. That made it 1-0 A’s.
For the A’s, left-hander JP Sears got the ball. He also gave up a first inning hit, but was able to work around it to put up a zero in the inning.
In the top of the second, Zack Gelof promptly launched a solo home run to double the Oakland lead to 2-0. After that point, both pitchers began to settle in.
Arrighetti would throw scoreless frames in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. He cruised into the seventh and immediately got the first two outs of that inning. He then ran into trouble, and his outing ended after six and two-thirds, qualifying him for a quality start.
Sears tossed six shutout for the Athletics. His command was sharp, but he struck out just one hitter. He made way for the Oakland bullpen, which is when the Houston offense finally came to life. Ben Gamel pinch hit and walked, which was followed by an RBI triple from Jon Singleton to cut the lead in half. Then, a looping RBI single from Jose Altuve tied the game at two.
Each bullpen traded zeroes in the eighth and ninth innings. That forced extras, and Bryan Abreu navigated a clean top of the tenth, even with the automatic runner beginning the frame on second. It appeared the Astros had won it in the bottom half, but Daz Cameron made a diving catch to save the game and send it to the eleventh.
Abreu struck out the side in the top half, giving Houston another chance to win. However, former Ragin’ Cajun Hogan Harris entered and got the A’s through the jam.
Oakland broke through in the twelfth. Back-to-back bunts scored their first run. Then, a third straight bunt scored a run via a fielder’s choice. That made it 4-2 A’s.
Altuve led off the bottom half with an RBI double to score the ghost runner. That made it 4-3, and Alvarez advanced him to third with one out. Harris got the next two batters to close it out.
BIG NUMBER: 2
The Astros had two chances to win the game by scoring the runner from second in extras. However, they failed each time. They then gave up two runs to Oakland in the 12th, leading to the loss.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Daz Cameron
Daz Cameron made an incredible play to save the game in the tenth. He also went 1-1 with a walk after entering the game late.
UP NEXT: The Astros and Athletics will play again tomorrow at the same time, 7:10 PM.