A’s clinch final Astros series with big McCann blast

Rook got his 100th RBI and Butler extended his hit streak to 19 in the A’s 5-4 victory.

Rewind to May 16. The Houston Astros just completed a four-game sweep of what looked like the same old Oakland Athletics, headed for another dismal season in the AL West cellar.

Fast forward to today and a vastly altered bright-future A’s team just clinched their second series win in a row against those very same Astros. Though still the division leaders, they’re a surmountable four-game lead over the Seattle Mariners and would rather coast into the playoffs than crawl into it.

And that brings to our noble green and gold spoilers. Per usual, the A’s were anchored by the superstar bat of Brent Rooker, who kicked off his team’s scoring in the top of the third with a one-out single to the opposite field, knocking in Max Schuemann who’d just stolen third base. The RBI gave Rook his 100th of the year, his first time reaching the mark. Despite hitting 30 homers last year, the slugger only got to a mere 69 RBIs, so him reaching the 100th speaks almost as much to the offense surrounding him as it does to his own improvement. A batter later the A’s tied the game up 2-2 with a JJ Bleday fielder’s choice that scored our old friend Ryan Noda in his first game back since getting down on May 1.

Starter Joey Estes had given up those couple of runs to the Astros half an inning earlier. After loading the bases on a couple of hits and a walk, the rookie allowed an RBI sac fly to Jake Meyers, followed by single to Mauricio Dubon off a slider at the top of the zone.

Back to the third inning, the Astros scored another run to regain the lead, albeit not one charged to Estes. The trouble commenced with a Schuemann error at third base in which he missed a grounder after stepping into some funky footwork, seemingly changing his mind halfway to the ball from running for a backhanded grab to trying to get in front of it. A batter later and the bases were loaded yet again. Working admirably out of the jam, the righty got Jeremy Pena to ground into a double play, which scored a run but ended the inning.

With the A’s now down 3-2, Kyle McCann stepped up to the plate in the top of the 6th with Jacob Wilson at first. After dealing with a couple of Hunter Brown cutters, the southpaw catcher swung hard at a fastball outside the zone. He got more than enough of the bat’s barrel to send the baseball high, deep, and over the high left field wall, stealing back the lead for the A’s and continuing McCann’s impressive rookie season. A Schuemann double and another Rooker single later and Oakland was all of a sudden up 5-3 on the Astros.

The bullpen held it down, topped off by a rare zero-strikeout save from Mason Miller to win the game 5-4, the last Astros run credited to another Schuemann error. More important than all this, Lawrence Butler got a single in the top of 5th that extended his hit streak to a whopping 19 games!

The Astros can’t afford another loss tomorrow this late in the season, but the A’s are playing with nothing to lose, and it’s working. Houston needs to prove they’re not going to be unmasked as postseason posers come October, while every win Oakland gets is pure gravy. Nevertheless, the A’s will have their toughest task of the series thus far with Mitch Spence facing off against Astros ace Framber Valdez.