Astros 10, A’s 1: Houston pummels Oakland with 7 homers, including a breakthrough for José Abreu
Abreu #Abreu
OAKLAND, Calif. — José Abreu’s first home run as an Astro highlighted a monster day for the offense as Houston finished off a three-game sweep of the A’s with a 10-1 win in Sunday’s finale at Oakland Coliseum.
Houston teed off for a season-high seven homers, matching the franchise record. Jake Meyers claimed the lead for good on a three-run blast in the fourth inning, and later Jeremy Peña’s two-run shot in the ninth inning served as Oakland’s death knell. Yordan Alvarez went deep twice, both solo homers. Abreu, Chas McCormick and Jose Altuve each contributed a solo shot as well.
Astros starter Cristian Javier tossed five innings of one-run ball while battling some fastball command issues. He threw 46 of his 88 pitches for strikes and allowed one home run, four hits and three walks with three strikeouts.
Relievers Parker Mushinski, Phil Maton, Ryne Stanek and Rafael Montero teamed to cover four scoreless innings after Javier’s exit — and did so with plenty of run support.
The Astros have swept four series this season. They return to Minute Maid Park with wins in nine of their last 11 games.
Here are a few takeaways from the game:
Abreu finally sees one go out
Abreu’s offensive struggles in his first season with the Astros have been well-documented. So, when the first baseman homered for the first time in 283 plate appearances on Sunday in the eighth inning, he celebrated accordingly.
Abreu crushed a 1-1 pitch over the left-field wall and sprinted around the bases like he thought the ball was somehow going to reverse its flight. A gaggle of giddy teammates came out of the visiting dugout to greet him, and Abreu slid onto the warning track in front of them as they clapped and cheered.
Javier gets a new catcher
The Astros on Sunday debuted a new battery pairing as rookie Yainer Diaz caught Javier for the first time in a major-league game. The duo got off to a rough start when Ryan Noda hit a game-tying solo homer on Javier’s third pitch of the game, erasing the lead Alvarez had provided with his own first-inning homer.
There was another hiccup in the second inning when Diaz’s throwing error enabled Jace Peterson to take third base shortly after stealing second. But in the fourth inning, after issuing a leadoff walk, Javier got his first pickoff/caught stealing of the season when he started a 1-3-6 play. Opponents were successful in their previous nine stolen base attempts against Javier.
Javier had walked two or fewer batters in each of his first 10 starts this season. On Sunday, he walked three in the first five innings.
Altuve flashes leather
Altuve said after Saturday’s game that while he is still getting his timing back at the plate following surgery on his broken thumb in March, his defense feels back to normal. A play in Sunday’s fourth inning proved his point.
The A’s had one on with one out when Tony Kemp grounded a ball to the right side of the infield. Altuve fielded it and made a nifty backhanded glove flip to Peña, who barehanded the ball at second base and turned the 4-6-3 double play.
Altuve had been involved in three other double plays in his previous six games this season, but that was the first time he had started a ground-ball double play.
Altuve also hit his first home run of the season on Sunday. His seventh-inning blast off A’s righthander Luis Medina was his first home run in a major-league game since Sept. 27, 2022, against Arizona.