Oakland Athletics They will look for their third consecutive win when they begin the four-match home series against Houston Astros on thursday night
Both teams enter the American League West rivals’ third meeting with a win after a brief struggle.
When Astros Colorado clinched the division with a 4–1 win over the Rockies on Wednesday afternoon, with the A’s taking a 6–5 series victory over the Boston Red Sox with their second win in a row.
Oakland had lost eight straight and four straight to the Red Sox over an 11-day span, but a 3–0 win on Tuesday night ended both of those losses.
now they have to deal with Astros The team that dominated the first three game series against Oakland, defeating both by a total score of 31–9
Those games were in May, and Oakland manager Mark Kotze has since seen his last-place team do some good things, including a series-ending win over the Red Sox on Wednesday despite four errors.
“We don’t win a lot of games unless we’re clean (defensively),” Kotse said. “It was a tough day defensively. But we kept fighting. That’s the mentality — that’s the identity — this team wants. They want to play hard and they play hard, and those bode well for our future.” Are.”
one of the few things that went right in his previous meetings with A Astros The outing was for left-hander Hogan Harris (2–3, 6.51 ERA), who had arguably his best game of the season on May 27 as a bulk-inning reliever. He limited Houston to one hit in five shutout innings during one game. Oakland eventually lost 6–3.
The A’s have lost each of their last five matches, three of which were starts. In the other two, Harris played as a big inning reliever. The novice has gone 0-3 with an 8.03 ERA over that span.
Astros They drafted rookie JP France (4-3, 3.31 ERA) to start the series. The 28-year-old right-hander has been unbeaten in the last three matches. Backed by 27 total walks, he went 2–0 with a 2.60 ERA against the St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado and Los Angeles Angels.
He has never encountered A.
France won’t necessarily benefit, but it appears reinforcements are on their way. Astroswho were missing Jordan Alvarez, Jose Altuve and Michael Brantley then saw top player Frambar Valdez miss his latest start due to a calf problem
Valdez passed inspection on Wednesday and is set to start Friday’s game at Oakland.
After delaying his training schedule due to illness, Alvarez began a rehab assignment at Triple-A Sugar Land on Wednesday. He went 1-for-3 with a walk and a strikeout.
Alvarez, who has been out since June 9 with a right oblique injury, has not been ruled out of the Oakland series. That could provide an immediate boost to a club that has scored three or fewer runs in five of its last nine games.
Houston general manager Dana Brown said, “If he’s looking really good and has quality AB, we should see him back here with no problem.” “The big thing is he has to get his wind back. He was in a bit of bad weather, but if he gets his wind back, he should be fine.”
–Field Level Media