The Houston Astros Jose Siri (below) slides so hard he upends Oakland A’s third baseman Josh Harrison (above) in the first inning at Minute Maid Field in Houston on Fri Oct 1, 2021 (AP News photo)

A’s Win A Nail Biter in Houston 8-6

By Barbara Mason

After a long, grueling and disappointing season the Oakland A’s took on the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park Friday night. The A’s were swept by the Seattle Mariners earlier this week and would like to finished the season on a high note by beating the division leading Astros. In their last series just a week ago, the A’s swept Houston.

The A’s will not have the home crowd support and this game may prove to be a difficult one. This team has surprised us all year and so I would say this series is a toss up.

Houston got up on the board in the first inning and led 1-0. The A’s answered in the third inning when Josh Harrison singled driving Tony Kemp home to tie up the game. Chad Pinder would extend their lead in the fourth inning with a home run to take the lead 2-1.

Matt Olson hit his 39th home run of the season driving Starling Marte home and giving Oakland a 4-1 lead. The Mariners would score once in the inning trying to get back in this game.

Oakland continued to pile it on in the eighth inning. Marte, Pinder and Yan Gomes scored giving the A’s a 7-2 lead. Oakland was not finished. Seth Brown would score on an error and it was at that point that Houston made a pitching change. The A’s had caused some major damage in the eighth inning leading 8-2.

The Houston Astros began to stir up a little trouble chipping away at the A’s lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Jake Meyers singled driving in Carlos Correa. It was then that Bob Melvin pulled Yusmeiro Petit and sent in Deolis Guerra. It was not a good outing for Guerra.

The first batter he faced Jason Castro hit a home run with runners on base and just like that the score in this game was 8-6 in favor of the A’s. With two outs Lou Trivino came into the game to try to salvage the inning. The A’s were able to close out the inning and they were three outs away from a win in game one of the series.

In the ninth inning the A’s really needed some insurance runs. When playing a team like the Astros you just can’t have too large of a lead. Those insurance runs were nowhere to be found as the A’s went three up and three down.

The Astros were looking for a walk off. Lou Trivino walked two and with no outs the game was on the line for Oakland. Altuve would strike out, Brantley grounded out, Meyers grounded out and Oakland had won the game 8-6 in a nail biter. Lou Trivino got the save on his 30th birthday.

Game two is schedule for 4:10. Paul Blackburn will take the mound tomorrow and for the Astros Jake Odorizz