A’S HAVE IT GOING AT BOTH ENDS, MAUL ‘STROS

Oakland Posts 21 Hits, Fan 18

HOUSTON, July 28 (AP) – The Oakland Athletics tied a club season high with 21 hits in an 11-2 drubbing of the Houston Astros at Minute Maid Park.  A’s pitchers also fanned 18 Astros batters, matching a major league single game season high for a nine-inning contest.  Los Angeles Dodgers pitchers struck out 18 Chicago White Sox on July 2 at Dodger Stadium.

Eight different Oakland batters—all but one member of the starting lineup—banged out at least two hits in a game that never seemed particularly competitive.  The A’s also accumulated 21 hits in an April 22 pounding of the Texas Rangers at the Coliseum.

Oakland took a lead that would never be surrendered in the top of the third.  Consecutive two-out singles off the bats of Alberto Callaspo, Josh Reddick and Nick Punto loaded the bases and Jed Lowrie applied the coup de grace with a three-run double.  The A’s upped their advantage to four runs in the top of the third on Yoenis Cespedes’ lead-off homer—his 15^th long ball of the campaign—off Houston starter Brett Oberholtzer.  Brandon Moss’ RBI single in the fifth made it 5-0.

The Astros got on the board in the bottom of the fifth when Marwin Gonzalez singled home Kiké Hernandez.  But Oakland got that run back in the sixth when Reddick scored on reliever Darin Downs’ wild pitch and then broke the game wide open in the seventh.  The A’s batted around in the inning and scored four times, with Reddick’s three-run homer—capping a three-hit day—the big blow.  Stephen Vogt’s RBI single accounted for the final run of the frame. 

Chris Carter’s 32^nd home run of the season—his sixth in the last eight games—made it 10-2 in the eighth but the A’s pushed a final run across in the top of the ninth when Josh Donaldson doubled home Vogt to account for the final score.

Jesse Chavez (8-7) started and picked up the win for Oakland, fanning nine batters in just five innings of work.  All four of the A’s relievers struck out batters, with the final two—Fernando Abad and Sean Doolittle—both striking out the side.  The last seven outs of the game recorded by Oakland pitchers were all strikeouts.  The A’s struck out the side four times overall.

The game was the third longest by time—three hours and 53 minutes--in the major leagues this season.

7/28/2014, Oak14-Hou14, Minute Maid Park

                       1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9     R  H  E   LOB DP

2014 Athletics         0  3  1  0  1  1  4  0  1    11 21  0    13  1

2014 Astros            0  0  0  0  1  0  0  1  0     2 11  2     9  0

Athletics            AB  R  H BI   AVG    Astros               AB  R  H BI   AVG

Lowrie            ss  6  1  4  3  .238    Altuve            2b  5  0  4  0  .363

Vogt              1b  5  0  2  1  .280    Gonzalez,Ma       ss  5  0  1  1  .268

Cespedes          cf  5  1  2  1  .245    Carter            dh  4  1  1  1  .259

Donaldson         3b  6  1  3  1  .258    Castro,J          c   4  0  0  0  .190

Norris,De         c   6  1  2  0  .295    Krauss            lf  3  0  0  0  .173

Moss              lf  6  0  1  1  .253     Petit,G          ph  1  0  0  0  .250

Callaspo          dh  4  2  2  0  .211    Singleton         1b  2  0  1  0  .163

 Jaso             ph  1  0  0  0  .281    Dominguez,M       3b  4  0  2  0  .224

Reddick           rf  5  3  3  3  .309     Hoes             lf  0  0  0  0  .167

Punto             2b  5  2  2  0  .214    Grossman          rf  4  0  0  0  .250

                     49 11 21 10          Hernandez,E       cf  4  1  2  0  .312

                                                               36  2 11  2

Athletics                        INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

Chavez,J         W 8-7           5.0  8  1  1  1  9 114  72  3.90

O'Flaherty       H 4             1.0  0  0  0  0  1  12   8  2.35

Scribner         H 2             1.0  1  0  0  0  2  16  13  4.05

Abad                             1.0  1  1  1  1  3  23  14  2.89

Doolittle                        1.0  1  0  0  0  3  15  11  1.43

                                 9.0 11  2  2  2 18 180 118

Astros                           INN  H  R ER BB  K PCH STR   ERA

Oberholtzer      L 2-6           4.2 10  5  5  0  4  97  60  5.00

Downs,D                          1.0  1  1  1  1  0  14   6  7.08

Veras                            0.2  4  4  4  1  1  39  23  3.52

Qualls                           1.1  3  0  0  0  2  35  25  4.08

Fields                           1.1  3  1  1  0  2  28  19  2.38

                                 9.0 21 11 11  2  9 213 133

Oak: Jaso batted for Callaspo in the 8th

Hou: Petit,G batted for Krauss in the 8th

     Petit,G moved to 3b in the 9th

     Hoes inserted at lf in the 9th

E-Hernandez,E, Qualls. 2B-Lowrie(19), Donaldson(19), Reddick(15), Altuve(25).

HR-Cespedes(15), Reddick(8), Carter(32). RBI-Lowrie 3(47), Vogt(17),

Cespedes(51), Donaldson(66), Moss(43), Reddick 3(35), Gonzalez,Ma(15),

Carter(62). K-Cespedes 2, Donaldson, Norris,De, Moss 2, Punto 2, Jaso,

Gonzalez,Ma 3, Carter 2, Castro,J 4, Krauss 2, Dominguez,M 2, Grossman 3,

Hernandez,E, Petit,G. BB-Vogt, Cespedes, Singleton 2. WP-Downs,D, Veras.

GWRBI: Lowrie

Temperature: 70, Wind: none.

Attendance: 15,604

Game Time: 3:53