The Houston Astros Martin Maldonado (15) is congratulated by teammate Alex Bregman (2) after hitting three run fifth inning home run against the Oakland A’s at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Jul 8, 2022 (AP News photo)

Houston (55-28). 8. 14. 0

Oakland (28-57). 3. 4. 1

Friday, July 8, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND–There are likely outcomes when Paul Blackburn starts a game for the Oakland Athletics (28-57). The 28 year old toed the rubber, took the mound for the green and gold at 6:41 this evening with a record of 6-3, 2.90, there’s a good chance that Oakland will either 1) win, 2) take a lead into the late innings and blow it, 3) be embroiled in a tight contest into the late innings and then fall irremediably behind, 4) waste several scoring opportunities, or 5) some combination of the previous four options.

The second and third possibilities will have the best odds of occurring with a reliever toiling for Oakland. But it wasn’t the bullpen that was responsible for the 8-5 shellacking that the Athletics suffered tonight.

Blackburn, who leads the A’s starters in wins and ERA, was opposed by Houston Astros’ (55-28) José Urquidi, who brought an impressive 7-3 won-lost record with him to the mound and has excellent control. He also carried the baggage of a decidedly unimpressive earned run average of 4.15 with him.

He is a fly ball pitcher, which made his task more difficult in the early innings on this warm, dry evening in Oakland On the other hand, Urquidy undoubtedly was buoyed by knowing that the Astros had a team batting average of .242 while Blackburn had to rely for run support on Oakland’s team BA of .211.

Urquidy had some trouble early in the game, but bounced back to pitch eight solid innings and get the win, making his season’s numbers 8-4, 4.08. He gave up three runs, all earned, on four hits, one them for four bases, and a walk. He struck out two and threw 98 pitches, only 29 of which were balls.

Blackburn was magnificent … for three innings, after which the A’s were leading, 2-0. He fell apart in the fourth and was through for the evening while the sun still was out, throwing a total of 86 pitches, 51 of which were counted as strikes, over four plus frames. He yielded six runs, all of them earned, on seven hits, two of them for the distance, and a walk. He took the loss, bringing his record to 6-4, 3.36

After Blackburn had set down the first six Astros he faced, the first three of those on strikeouts, the A’s took a 2-0 lead on Elvis Andrus’s sixth home run of the year. It came with one down and Christian Bethancourt on base after he had singled sharply to left. The veteran shortstop’s round tripper flew over the Ring Central sign and the outstretched glove of leaping left fielder Kyle Tucker. It came on a 92mph four seamer.

Blackburn’s second time through the ‘stros’ lineup wasn’t as much of a breeze as his perfect, 40 pitch, five strikeout first three innings were. José Altuve took him to a full count before grounding out to make it ten straight Astros retired.

Then Aldemys Díaz laced a double to left, and Yordán Alvarez hit another, this one off the left field wall. The third blast to left came off the bat of Alex Bregman. He, too, slammed the ball to left, but this one left the park, landing 397 feet from the plate. Bregman’s 11th dinger of ’22, was hit off a first pitch 90mph sinker, and, just like that, the A’s’ two run lead morphed into a 3-2 deficit.

In the top of the fifth, the bottom third of Houston’s order picked up where the top two-thirds had left off in the fourth. Jake Meyers laced a single to left center and moved to second on Mauricio Dubón’s sharp single to left. (You can sense a sinister pattern here).

Martín Maldonado, batting ninth, took Blackburn deep to left center, 394 feet deep, on a sloooooow slider (78mph). It was the catcher’s eighth home run and 19th, 20th, and 21 RBI for the season.

After Blackburn walked Altuve and a single by Díaz moved him to third, Sam Moll relieved the beleaguered Blackburn. It took Moll only four pitches to stop the bleeding. Alvarez popped out to short, and Bregman gave Moll a pitcher’s best friend, 6-4-3 double play, Andrus to Allen to Brown.

The top of the sixth began well for Moll, who retired Tucker on an easy fly to left center for the first out. Then Gurriel hit a fly to center that Laureano came in on as the ball flew over his head for what was at first ruled a two base error but later was changed to a double.

Laureano clearly had misplayed the ball, but the rule book decrees that misjudgements shouldn’t be scored as errors. Meyers followed that hit with a seeing eye single to center, and there were two runners in scoring position with but a single out.

Dubón skied out to Piscotty in medium deep right; Gurriel held third. This brought Maldonado the plate, looking to perform an encore of his three run blast of the previous . This time he struck out.

A second southpaw Sam replaced Moll for the seventh, Sam Selman, recalled last Sunday from Las Vegas He handled his first two batters easily but walked Díaz on four pitches and surrendered a double to the left field corner to Bregman.

Tucker drove in Díaz, despite a valiant effort by Vimael Machín, on a single to third that brought Alvarez to within 90 feet of home. He travelled that distance thanks to Gurriel´s single to left, which also moved Tucker up to second. After Meyers fanned to end the frame, Houston was leading 8-2.

Oakland managed to score a run in their half of the seventh on Sean Murphy’s leadoff double, Andrus’s grounder to short that moved him to third, and Piscotty’s sacrifice foul fly to right. They now trailed by five.

The A’s brought in their third straight lefty, Kirby Snead, to toss the visitors’ eighth. He was hit hard and gave up a two base hit to Altuve, but he escaped the frame unscored upon and returned to pitch the ninth.

He caught Alvarez, who came to bat to chants of “MVP” by the Astros’ fans present among the 6,012 attendees. He induced a weak grounder to the right of the mound from Bregman and was unable to field it. That error might have proved costly to Snead. He walked Tucker and allowed a base knock to Gurriel but recovered to strike Meyers out looking and get Dubón to fly out to right.

Seth Martínez set the A’s down in order in the ninth.

Tomorrow at 1:07 Framber Valdéz (8-3, 2.67) will go against an Oakand starter who has yet to be announced.