Athletics knock off Astros for third straight game

The second-place Athletics won their fourth straight and made it three in a
row over the first-place Astros, winning by more than one run for the first
time in the series. Oakland trails Houston by 6 1/2 games in the American
League West.

After Houston had taken a 2-0 lead in the top of the third inning, the A's
rebounded immediately against Astros right-hander Rogelio Armenteros (1-1)
with four straight hits and a bases-loaded walk by Matt Chapman to tie the
score.

Matt Olson followed with an RBI single that gave the A's the lead for good,
and Canha came through with a two-run single that extended the Oakland lead to
5-2.

The same script unfolded in the fifth inning, with the Astros scoring first,
this time on a solo home run by Yordan Alvarez, before the A's countered with
three.

Olson again chipped in with a run-scoring single, Canha followed with a RBI
single and Stephen Piscotty made it 8-3 with a sacrifice fly to send Houston
to its fifth straight setback.

Alvarez capped his third multi-homer game of his rookie season when he bombed
his second of the day in the eighth inning to close the scoring. The pair
raised his season total to 19.

A's starter Chris Bassitt (9-5) benefitted from the big-time offensive support
to extend his string of unbeaten starts to four. He allowed three runs and
eight hits in six innings, walking two and striking out four.

Promoted from Triple-A to make the start in place of injured Gerrit Cole
(hamstring), Armenteros was done after four innings, charged with five runs on
seven hits. He walked one and struck out three.

Chapman finished with three hits, while Canha, Olson and Josh Phegley had two
apiece for the A's, who went homerless after smacking seven in the first two
games of the series.

George Springer and Michael Brantley joined Alvarez with two hits each for the
Astros, who had beaten the A's in nine of 11 meetings before losing the first
three in this series.

--Field Level Media