Oakland A’s Ramon Laureano (22) touches them all after hitting hitting a home run in the bottom of the fourth inning off Houston Astros starter Cristian Javier (53) at the Oakland Coliseum on Tue May 18, 2021 (AP News photo)

Houston 5 – 13 – 0

Oakland 6 – 8 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Tue May 18, 2021

OAKLAND–On the whole, the Oakland Athletics’ (26-17) recent six game excursion to the Hub and the Twin Cities was a success. Four wins out of six games played, especially on the road, is an effective ratio. Although Jake Diekman, who had been one of the bright spots when the team left Oakland, performed spotily, Sergio Romo began to show the form that made him such a favorite with the fans across the bay, and the offense was buoyed by the return to form of Matt Chapman, both at bat (although he still has a some more work to do there) and with his glove work, showing once more why he is, if not indisputably the best fielding third baseman in baseball, which he very well might be, he is the most elegant one.

The return of Chad Pinder from the injured list provided both a viable back up to those two left side of the infielders and added depth at every position except pitcher and catcher. Perhaps the A’s biggest problem on their swing through New England and the Mid West was located in New York, where MLB’s team of video replay analysts went its idiosyncratic way, overturning calls on the field or letting them stand without any visible cause.

Meanwhile, the A’s target for tonight, Dusty Baker’s Houston Astros, at 24-17, came into town only a half a game behind Oakland (25-17), snapping at the home team’s heels in what is shaping up as a tight race for the AL West lead. The game was even closer with the A’s taking the opening volley of the series 6-5 at the Oakland Coliseum.

Before the game started, Oakland announced that they had placed Mitch Moreland, used mostly as DH and occasionally as first baseman, on the 10-day injured list retroactive to May 15. He was sidelined by an inflammation of the area where his ribs join the cartridges that hold them to the breastbone, a condition that isn’t serious and which usually goes away on its own without treatment.

To replace Moreland, they recalled outfielder Luis Barrera from their AAA affiliate in Las Vegas. Barrera has no big league experience and was hitting at a .349 clip with two homers and seven RBI in eleven games when he was promoted. He bats and throws from the left side.

The man on the mound for the green and gold was Sean Manaea, who looked terrible at Fenway on Thursday, when he lasted only two innings against the Bosox, giving up ten hits and seven runs, every single one of them earned. Fenway’s a difficult park for left handed hurlers, although great and near great southpaws like Lefty Grove and Mel Parnell have prospered there.

But it’s not so overwhelming a venue that it could cause a debacle like that one. That’s a harsh judgement, but I make it with an awareness that Manaea has it in him to be a very good pitcher indeed. No mention of him and the Red Sox is complete if it doesn’t include the no hitter he pitched against them at the Coliseum on April 21, 2018.

Manaea’s opposite number, Cristián Javier (3-1, 3.08), was facing the A’s for the third time this season. He gave up three hits and two runs, both earned, in 3-2/3 innings against them on April 2, a game Houston eventually won, and then shut the A’s out over five innings, again yielding three hits, six days later in Houston, striking out seven and garnering his second win of the year.

It didn’t take long for Houston to get to Manaea. After retiring José Altuve on a fly to the warning track in left and striking Michael Brantley out swinging, the A’s starter surrendered a single to Alex Bregman, a double to Yuli Gurriel that advanced Bregman to third, and a double to Yordán Alvarez that brought both runners home. Manaea closed out the inning by inducing Carlos Correa to ground out to third.

Ramón Laureano got one of those runs back by driving a 94 mph four seamer over the left field fence for his ninth home run and 18th RBI of the season. It came with two out and no one on base, Javier having struck out Marc Canha and Seth Brown before his fellow Dominican took him deep.

Manaea held Houston in check until Kyle Tucker led off the fourth with a 459 foot blast into the right field seats, his tenth round tripper and twenty-eighth run batted in, puttng the Astros up 3-1. Manaea recovered to get Myles Straw out on a fly to left center, and Tony Kemp robbed Martín Maldonado of a hit with his leaping backhanded grab of the Houston backstop´s liner into the shift between second and third.

That was a break for Manaea because Altuve extended his hitting streak to an even dozen games when he beat out a slow grounder to Chapman. Then Canha made a nice running catch of Brantley´s fly to left to end the frame.

Once again, Laureano brought the A´s to within a run of Houston, leading off the bottom of the fourth with a 387 foot homer, again to left. The A´s threatened to tie it up when Chapman hit a resounding double off the right center field wall but Lawrie fouled out to Maldonado, and Murphy flew out to left center.

Settling down, Manaea pitched his first 1-2-3 inning in the fifth. Hopes for Oakland rose in their half of that frame with Pinder´s lead off towering fly to right but fell with the ball as it landed in Tucker´s glove at the wall.

Houston threatened in the top of the sixth with runners at the corners and one out, but Manaea came through, getting Maldonado to bounce into a 6-4-3 double play that kept the game tight.

It was Matt Olson’s tenth home run of the season, coming with two down and the bases empty in the bottom of the sixth off a 2-1, 93 mph four seamer that knotted the score at three all.

91 pitches, 66 of them for strikes, over six innings of work were enough for Manea, who left the game before the seventh frame began. He gave up three runs, all earned, on ten hits and a wild pitch, but didn’t walk anyone. His earned run average creped up a smidgen to 4.41.

Burch Smith relieved Manaea, and the visitors’ seventh started off ugly. Altuve beat out a slow grounder up the middle for a single, went to second on a wild pitch, and scored on Brantley’s double to deep right center. Brantley, in turn, advanced to third on Bregman’s fly to the same part of the outfield and scored on Gurriel’s sac fly to left. Smith struck Alvarez out swinging, but the damage was done.

Six innings also were enough for Javier. All three of the runs he surrendered were earned and came on solo home runs, two by Laureano. The Astros’ starter allowed two other hits and a walk and struck out nine. 56 of his 96 offerings were strikes.

His replacement, Enoli Paredes, quickly put the potential tying runs on base with a walk to Lawrie and a single by Murphy. After striking Pinder out swinging and loading the bases by walking Kemp, Paredes was up against the wall, and Baker replaced him with Andre Scrubb.

Canha brought Lawrie home with a sacrifice fly to center on Scrubbs’ first pitch. The two other runners held their places but advanced a base each when Scrubbs uncorked a wild pitch to Brown, whose fly out to right stranded them.

The A’s trailed the ‘stros 5-4 when Romo entered the fray to pitch the eighth. Correa led off with a dinky grounder that got past Romo for a single to short. But Romo got Tucker to hit another grounder in his direction, fielded it, threw from the seat of his pants to Kemp, who completed the double play by throwing Tucker out at first. Straw’s pop out to Pinder put an end to the inning.

Ryne Stanek came to pitch the home eighth and began by walking Laureano on four pitches. He got Olson out on a fly to left, but Chapman worked a 3-2 count before slamming a 97 mph four seamer to deep left center for a double that brought in Laureano and tied tbe game at five.

An intentional walk to Lowrie gave Murphy the chance to break the tie. He almost did, but Altuve fielded his grounder behind second and threw from the ground and behind his back to Correa for the force. Bryan Abreu came in and got Pinder to ground into a routine force at second, Correa to Altuve.

Melvin chose Yusmeiro Petit to pitch the ninth for the A’s. He retired pinch hitter Jason Castro, Altuve, and Brantley to a conga beat, as they say in Latin America. (For the younger set, the conga goes 1, 2, 3, kick).

Abreu stayed on to pitch the ninth for Houston. Altuve made a stellar dive to stop Kemp’s grounder and throw him out. Then Canha, after almost getting beaned, wallked and moved on to third on Brown’s shift defying single to center. Laureano drove in his third run of the game with a sacrifice fly to center, and the A’s had pulled off another unlikely comeback.

The win went to Petit, whose 16 pitches earned him his fifth win against no defeats (he has one save) and brought his ERA down to 1.82. The loss went to Abreu, his second against two wins.

Tomorrow’s battle, scheduled for 6:40 pm Oakland Coliseum, will feature two right handed starters, Zack Greinke (3-1, 4.18) for the ‘stros and Frankie Montás (5-2, 4.93) for the Athletics.