Oakland A’s starter JP Sears pitches in the top of the sixth to the Houston Astros at the Oakland Coliseum on Wed Jul 24, 2024 (AP News photo)

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum

Oakland, California

Houston Astros 8 (53-49)

Oakland Athletics 1 (41-63)

Win: Hunter Brown (9-6)

Loss: JP Sears (7-8)

Time: 2:30

Attendance: 14,978

By Stephen Ruderman

The A’s were unable to complete the sweep, as JP Sears imploded late, and the Astros won it 8-1 in what was most likely their final game at the Oakland Coliseum.

The A’s have been playing better baseball as of late. They took two of three from the Phillies, only the best team in Baseball, in Philadelphia to close out the first half. They also took the two of three from the Angels over the weekend at the Coliseum, but were unable to complete the sweep Sunday.

This week, the A’s have had the chance to play spoilers with the Houston Astros in town. The Astros, who got off to a 7-19 start, perhaps showing wear and tear in their aging core, have since played like the Astros of old, and have bolted themselves into dogfight atop a weak American League West with the Seattle Mariners.

The Astros went into this series in a virtual tie for first place with the Mariners, leading by mere percentage points. The A’s won the first two games of this series, but the Mariners have lost the first two games of their current three-game series with the Angels, which meant the two teams were still in a virtual tie coming into play Wednesday.

This was also most likely going to be the final game for the Astros at the Oakland Coliseum. The Astros came over from the National League to the American League in 2013, so they don’t have as much of a history at the Coliseum as the rest of the American League. Still, they’ve had their fair share of epic moments at the Coliseum over these last 12 years.

The A’s had a chance to complete the sweep today, which they were not able to do against the Angels, and they had the perfect guy on the mound for that in JP Sears. Sears hasn’t had the best season, as he came into Tuesday’s game with a 4.49 ERA, but he’s been a consistent game, who has chomped at the bit to take the ball throughout his year and a half in the big leagues.

Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman both singled to left field to start the game, and Yordan Alvarez grounded into a fielder’s choice to put runners at the corners with one out. Yandy Diaz then knocked in Altuve with a sacrifice fly to right.

The A’s struck right back against Astros’ starter Hunter Brown in the bottom of the first inning on back-to-back doubles. Lawrence Butler doubled to center to lead off the inning, and Miguel Andujar immediately followed that up with a double to right to tie the game. Despite the go-ahead run now being at second with nobody out, the A’s were unable to take the lead.

Mauricio Dubon struck out swinging to start the top of the second, but Jon Singleton reached on an error by first-baseman Seth Brown, which allowed Singleton to reach second base. Chas McCormick grounded out to third for an unproductive second out, but Altuve lined the first pitch for the longest single of the year off the bottom of the wall down the left field line to put Houston back ahead.

The A’s had runners at first and second with two outs after base-hits by Brown and Max Schuemann, but the A’s were unable to come through, and Brown got out of the inning without any damage.

Sears pitched a pair of 1-2-3 innings in the third and fourth. I would have said he settled down, but if it wasn’t for Brown’s error in the second, it would have most likely been three-straight 1-2-3 innings. Brown, meanwhile, pitched scoreless innings in both the third and fourth.

The Astros led 2-1 going to the fifth, with one out, McCormick hit a home run just barely to the left of straight away center to make it 3-1. Altuve reached on a throwing error by third-baseman Abraham Toro, but Sears kept his composure and got out of it without any further damage.

Brown pitched a scoreless bottom of the fifth, and then Sears hit another rough patch in the top of the sixth. Yainer Diaz doubled to lead off the inning, and Jeremy Pena followed up with a single to left to score Diaz and extend Houston’s lead to 4-1. Like the fifth, Sears settled down, and he ended up picking off Pena, who was trying to steal second, to end the inning.

Brown threw another scoreless inning in the bottom of the sixth, and Sears went back out for the top of the seventh. Even though he got a bad break on Brown’s error in the second, Sear was solid after a bumpy top of the first.

Sears showed some signs of vulnerability in the fifth and sixth, as he allowed a run in each inning, but he was able to minimize the damage both times. Since he had only thrown 74 pitches through his six innings, he was back out for the seventh.

However, as the Astros prepared to go through the fourth time in their order, Sears collapsed. Singleton lined a lead-off base-hit to right, and McCormick was hit by a pitch. Altuve and Bregman then hit back-to-back doubles, and just four batters and eight pitches in, the Astros had scored three runs to open up their lead to 7-1.

Sears was also done, and Kyle Muller was brought into the game. Yordan Alvarez moved Bregman over to third on a fly out to center, and Yainer Diaz got Bregman in with a sacrifice fly to center to make it a laugher at 8-1.

It was quite an unfortunate end to Sears’ day. Sears had given up three unearned runs through six innings, but after giving up four runs in the seventh, his final totals didn’t necessarily reflect his entire outing. He was able to keep the dam from bursting at times, but it finally came unglued in the seventh.

As for his final totals, Sears gave up nine hits and eight runs, seven of them, earned over six innings. He did not walk anybody, and he struck out three.

The A’s wasted an opportunity against Bryan Abreu in the bottom of the seventh, and Muller came back out to throw a 1-2-3 top of the eighth. Muller Worked out of a jam for a scoreless top of the ninth, and he did a great job in three innings out of the bullpen.

Muller also made it so Mark Kotsay did not have to blow through his bullpen. In fact, despite the Astros’ scoring eight runs today, Kotsay only had to use two pitchers.

Taylor Scott pitched a scoreless bottom of the eighth for Houston, and Bryan King did the same in the bottom of the ninth, as the Astros ended up winning it 8-1.

Hunter Brown got the win, and JP Sears got the loss. Just like in their series against the Angels, the A’s were unable to complete the sweep, as they fall to 41-63.

The Angels complete their sweep of the Mariners up in Seattle with a 2-1 win at T-Mobile Park, and as a result, the Astros now move a full game ahead of the Mariners atop the American League West.

The A’s will now head to Anaheim for a four-game set against those very Los Angeles Angels starting Thursday night. The veteran, Ross Stripling (1-9, 5.82 ERA), will be on the mound for Oakland, and he will be opposed by left-hander Kenny Rosenberg (0-0, 6.30 ERA), who will make his first start of the season. First pitch will be at 6:38 p.m.