The Houston Astros Martin Maldonado crosses the plate after hitting a bottom of the second grand slam against the Oakland A’s at Minute Maid Field on Sat Jul 16, 2022 (AP News photo)

A’s Scoreless in Game Two Loss To Astros 5-0

By Barbara Mason

Friday night the Oakland A’s (31-61) took care of the Houston Astros (59-31) in a great offensive game that featured some nice pitching from Cole Irvin and nine hits for a 5-1 win over the AL West leaders.

Game recap: Saturday afternoon in game two of this series the A’s fell behind early in the second inning. A Martin Maldonado grandslam gave the Astros a 4-0 lead. Yuli Gurriel, Jake Meyers and Chas McCormick were on base for Houston.

It was a rough inning for A’s pitcher Jared Koenig. It was that second inning that made all the difference in this game. After the second inning, Koenig really settled down but the damage had been done.

The Astros would tack on one more run in the fourth inning when Chas McCormick singled and Aledmys Diaz scored. Houston would take the 5-0 lead into the eighth inning.

Oakland pitcher Jake Koenig pitched through seven innings giving up seven hits and five runs. He had three strikeouts. The A’s did manage seven hits but were unable to put a single run on the scoreboard. The A’s struck out 16 times in this game. Oakland has had only had one walk in this series so far and 24 strikeouts.

The biggest problem for the A’s was Justin Verlander who presents problems to any team that faces him. He gave up six hits with no runs scored through six innings. He had ten strikeouts. With an ERA of 1.89 he dominates almost every time he takes the mound. Bryan Abreu was the Astro closer who successfully dismissed Oakland, the final 5-0.

Sunday afternoon the A’s will take on Houston in game three to decide the series. The Astros will send Jake Odorizzi (4-2, 3.38) to the mound and at the time of this post the A’s pitcher is still undecided. First pitch is scheduled for 11:10 AM PT.