WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Henry Bolte and Michael Stefanic both drove in two runs in the sixth inning, and Jacob Lopez tossed four strikeouts in the Athletics\u2019 6-5 win over the Houston Astros on Friday, assuring the AL West champion will be baseball\u2019s first postseason team without a winning record in a full season.<\/p>\n
The Astros still lead the AL West following Texas’ 10-2 loss to the Twins. Both teams are 79-81, and the division winner will be the first in history at .500 or worse.<\/p>\n
Lopez (7-5) went six innings, giving up two hits and one run. His only run came off a no-doubt solo homer from Christian Walker that gave the Astros a 1-0 lead in the fourth inning.<\/p>\n
The lead lasted into the bottom of the sixth until an error from Jose Altuve sparked the offensive explosion from the A\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Hunter Brown (6-4) was pulled for Bennett Sousa following a sacrifice bunt that advanced runners to second and third with one out, but the pitching began to unravel once the bullpen took over.<\/p>\n
Sousa\u2019s third pitch was roped to center field by the pinch-hitting Stefanic for a two-run single that put the A\u2019s ahead 2-1. The bleeding continued as the A\u2019s dropped in another hit, and Jonah Heim immediately followed it up with a first-pitch RBI.<\/p>\n
AJ Blubaugh replaced Sousa and was met with a Henry Bolte bases-clearing two-run triple that extended the lead to 5-1.<\/p>\n
The inning was capped by a grounded fielder\u2019s choice that allowed Bolte to slide into home, avoiding the tag to expand their lead.<\/p>\n
Bolte finished the night 2 for 5, and Stefanic went 1 for 1, with both picking up two RBIs.<\/p>\n
Cam Smith’s solo homer in the seventh cut the Astros\u2019 deficit to four, and they scored three more in the eighth.<\/p>\n
Luis Medina struck out Smith to escape the inning with the A’s still ahead, and Hogan Harris picked up his 17th save with a hitless ninth.<\/p>\n
Houston can clinch a postseason berth with a win against the A\u2019s and a Texas loss versus the Twins on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Athletics will start RHP Jack Perkins (3-12) for Saturday\u2019s matchup against the Astros. Houston has not announced a starter.<\/p>\n
See AP’s full MLB coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Henry Bolte and Michael Stefanic both drove in two runs in the sixth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[90582,91670,88826,116256,90809,38605,99782,90789,32366,57926,90808,154450,23681,202,196,42094,197,84494,942,82,84,83],"class_list":["post-448274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-astros-athletics-score","tag-bennett-sousa","tag-christian-walker","tag-henry-bolte","tag-hogan-harris","tag-hunter-brown","tag-jack-perkins","tag-jacob-lopez","tag-jonah-heim","tag-jose-altuve","tag-luis-medina","tag-michael-stefanic","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100502-member-choice-sports-option","tag-product-30599-ap-sports-news-s-wire-only","tag-product-32562-ap-online-other-sports-news","tag-product-40776-ap-california-sports-only","tag-product-40798-ap-nevada-sports-only","tag-product-40815-ap-texas-sports-only","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}