Houston Astros’ Dallas Keuchel who will face the Oakland A’s in the upcoming series starting Friday night at Minute Maid Field smiles after being pulled in the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Texas Rangers on Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s are in Houston to start a three-game series against the Astros this weekend. Friday’s game will feature a matchup of two lefties.  Sean Manaea will pitch for the A’s, and he has a career mark of 1-2 versus the Astros. Manaea had a terrible outing last Saturday against the Orioles as he did not survive the first inning and was able to record just one out. Dallas Keuchel, the former Cy Young award winner, will make his fourth start since coming off the DL. Keuchel was 9-0 before going on the DL and is 1-2 since his return, but he was his old self in his last start when he recorded his tenth win of the ear.

Kendall Graveman will pitch on Saturday, and Collin McHugh will do the honors for the Astros. McHugh has been on the DL for most of the year and is 0-2 since returning to action. The Astros are hoping he returns to form so that he will be ready for the playoffs. Sunday’s game will feature Jharel Cotton going against the former Athletic, Brad Peacock. Cotton has had a subpar season, and he is, in essence, auditioning for next year. The A’s are hoping he returns to the form that he showed last year after coming over from the Dodgers. Peacock, who has been an average pitcher thus far in his career, is having a wonderful year with a record of 10-1 and he beat the A’s the last time he faced them.

The Astros own the best record in the American League with a record of 74-46. They probably will end the season with home field advantage throughout the playoffs. However, they have not played well in August. Their record is 5-10, and they are hoping to continue their mastery over the A’s this weekend.

The Astros are loaded. They are led by Jose Altuve, George Springer, Marwin Gonzalez, Yulie Guriel, Brian McCann, Josh Reddick, and Carlos Correa. Correa is currently on the DL but should be back before the end of the season. The Astros have a strong bullpen led by Luke Gregerson, Chris Devenski, and Ken Giles. The Astros acquired Tyler Clippard and Francisco Liriano for additional help as they are hoping to head to the World Series.

The A’s continue the youth movement. Players such as Matt Chapman, Matt Olson, Chad Pinder, and Bruce Maxwell will see a lot of playing time the last six weeks of the year as the A’s are formulating their plans for 2018.

The young A’s are showing that they can compete. They played the Kansas City Royals tough this week. They came back from a four-run deficit Tuesday night to win. They rallied on Wednesday to tie the game in the eighth but lost. The young players are gaining confidence every day as they prove that they can play and are here to stay.

The Astros will be looking to get back to winning, and the A’s will be looking to upset the applecart. Should be a fun series.