Lawrence Butler hit one of Oakland’s five home runs in a powerful performance in which he came a single shy of the cycle and the Athletics ran off from the visiting Houston Astros for an 8-2 victory on Tuesday night.
Brent Rooker, Seth Brown, Zack Gelof and Shea Langeliers also homered for Oakland, which has taken the first two games of a three-game set. JJ Bleday doubled for a sixth consecutive game, helping the A’s improve to 4-1 since the All-Star break.
Osvaldo Bido (2-1) took advantage of early offensive support to capture the win, limiting the Astros to one run and four hits in five innings. He struck out six and issued no walks.
Butler tripled in the first, homered in the third, grounded out in the fourth and doubled in the sixth, setting himself up for a shot at Oakland’s first cycle since Mark Ellis last accomplished the feat in 2007. But Butler drew a five-pitch walk against Rafael Montero in the eighth to finish 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBIs.
Rooker’s homer, his 23rd of the season, came three batters after Butler’s leadoff triple in the first to give Oakland a lead it never relinquished.
After Victor Caratini got the Astros within 2-1 with a solo shot in the third, the hosts did the rest of the scoring until the ninth. Four of their remaining six runs came via solo homers, with Butler connecting in the home half of the third, Brown and Gelof going back-to-back in the fourth and Langeliers completing the scoring in the seventh.
Oakland’s other runs came via an RBI single by Abraham Toro in the fifth and Butler’s run-scoring double in the sixth.
The A’s did the majority of their scoring against Astros starter Jake Bloss (0-1), who served up five runs and six hits in four innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Toro and Brown finished with two hits apiece for the A’s, who had lost six of seven games to the Astros this season before this series.
Jeremy Pena capped a three-hit night for the Astros with his ninth homer of the year, a solo shot with two outs in the ninth. Pena also had a double and a single, while Caratini and Yordan Alvarez chipped in with two hits apiece.