Oakland A’s Stephen Vogt connects for an RBI single for the game winning run against the Houston Astros in the top of the eighth inning at Minute Maid Field in Houston (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

With the score tied a t 3-3 in the top of the eighth at Minute Maid Field in Houston the Oakland A’s Stephen Vogt got a pitch he liked and smoked it for a tie breaking single that helped get the A’s their first series win against the Houston Astros 4-3. It would be the A’s third series win of the season.

A’s manager Mark Kotsay said in the press game presser “That’s a good win right there,” Kotsay said. “Win a series against this team. Battle back from being down 3-0, shows a lot of character and a lot of fight.”

The Ramon Laureano cracked a his eighth home run of the season as the A’s well below .500 head into the All Star break 32-61. The A’s had lots to be pleased about at the close of the first half winning six of their last 11 games which is improvement considering their struggles since going 10-8 to start the season.

Kyle Tucker and Jeremy Peña both homered for the Astros but it wasn’t quite enough to keep up with the A’s. The Astros finish the first half of the season in first place in the American League West at 59-32 with the second best record in baseball behind the New York Yankees.

Still the losing the last game of the first half was a disappointment for Astros manager Dusty Baker who really wanted to end the half on a good note, “It is disappointing,” Baker said. “It seems any time we had a miscue, they took advantage of it. It was a tough one to lose. We wanted to go into the break on a positive, and now, we don’t have much choice other than to regroup and get it back together when we start against the Yankees.”

The A’s return back to the Oakland Coliseum after the All Star Break on Thu Jul 21 for a 12:37pm PDT doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers.