Houston loses fourth straight in extra innings
Astros daily report presented by APG&E: 3 hits from the 3-2 loss
Houston was in Oakland on Friday night for game two of the four-game series against the A's. They had Justin Verlander on the mound as they attempted to end their three-game skid and get things back on track. Here is a recap of the game:
Final Score: A's 3, Astros 2.
Record: 78-45, first in the AL West.
Winning pitcher: Lou Trevino (4-5, 4.85 ERA).
Losing pitcher: Cy Sneed (0-1, 4.26 ERA).
1) Verlander with another quality start
After his four earned run outing against Baltimore last Sunday, Justin Verlander needed one of his typical dominant starts to rebound and get back on track. He looked in command for most of the night, peppering the zone with strikes to rack up strikeouts all through the night.
Unfortunately, two of the four hits he allowed were solo home runs, which tainted his otherwise terrific night, though he would work his way up to another double-digit strikeout night with seven innings pitched. His final line: 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 11 K, 2 HR.
.@JustinVerlander is the oldest pitcher since Randy Johnson in 2002 to go 6 straight games with 10+ Ks.
Verlander also sets a new @Astros mark for consecutive games (6) with 10+ Ks. pic.twitter.com/PFTsbOVWE9
— MLB Stats (@MLBStats) August 17, 2019
2) Offense held in check until the sixth
While Verlander was working his way through seven two-run innings, Houston's offense was held scoreless until the sixth inning. In the top of the sixth, Michael Brantley hit a one-out double before the Astros loaded the bases. Carlos Correa put Houston on the board with a sacrifice fly, then Yuli Gurriel put Houston ahead 2-1 at the time with an RBI-single but was thrown out trying to advance to second, ending in the inning.
With Verlander's night done after seven innings, Ryan Pressly was first out of Houston's bullpen to throw the bottom of the eighth inning. He worked around a two-out walk, sending the tied game to the ninth. Houston came up empty in the top of the inning, resulting in Roberto Osuna coming in for the bottom half to try and send the game to extra innings. Osuna did his job, retiring the A's in order, giving the Astros another chance to win the game.
3) Houston loses in extras
Despite getting two runners on, the Astros were unable to score in the top half of the tenth. Will Harris gave them another chance, getting a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning to push the game one inning further. The two teams would come up with another scoreless inning in the eleventh, with the middle of Houston's order unable to get anything going then Joe Smith shutting down Oakland in the bottom half.
In the twelfth inning, the Astros were again retired in order in the top of the inning while in the bottom half Hector Rondon allowed a leadoff double. Oakland was able to move the runner to third, but Rondon would get out of it and send the game to another inning.
While Houston was able to get some runners on base in the top of the thirteenth, they would again come away empty. Cy Sneed attempted to send the game to the fourteenth but instead allowed the walk-off hit to lose the game.
Up Next: The third game of this series will be on Saturday with a 3:05 PM Central start. The Astros will get a fill-in start from Rogelio Armenteros (1-0, 1.93 ERA) as Tuesday's doubleheader along with Gerrit Cole's injury has left a hole in Houston's rotation, while Oakland is expected to start Chris Bassitt (8-5, 3.56 ERA).
The Astros daily report is presented by APG&E.
