Houston Astros' Chas McCormick, right, is congratulated by Jose Siri after hitting a home run against the Oakland Athletics during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Oakland, Calif., Tuesday, May 31, 2022. OAKLAND, Calif. — It was a good thing Framber Valdez’s nine-inning complete game the day before had saved Houston’s bullpen, because the Astros needed it Tuesday.
Javier’s outing ended after he escaped a bases-loaded jam, and the Astros tied the game before the first of five Houston relievers took the mound. Relief was delivered late as Chas McCormick played the hero with a go-ahead solo homer in the eighth inning, allowing reliever Rafael Montero to pick up his third win of the season and lifting the Astros to a 3-1 win over the A’s at the Coliseum.
Other than that, it was another game where the Astros scraped by on bare-minimum offense. This time, their starting pitching did not do the heavy lifting but the opposition was just as miserable at the plate in the clutch.Javier made his first trip through the A’s order in two scoreless innings on 37 pitches as he worked around two doubles. In contrast, A’s starter Frankie Montas required only 42 pitches to cover four innings, retiring the first seven batters in a row and 11 of the 12 he faced.
Javier’s troubles came to a head in the bottom of the fourth when he gave up a two-out double to Elvin Andrus and walked Sheldon Neuse. Christian Pache, Oakland’s nine-hole hitter, arrived at the plate batting .169 on the season and knocked in the game’s first run on an RBI single up the middle.