Muncy's clutch homer seals series win after A's claw back from 6-0 hole

HOUSTON -- After rallying late on Saturday night against the Astros, Lawrence Butler said no lead was safe against the Athletics. Down six runs midway through Sunday afternoon’s series finale, the A’s proved that was true.

Brian Serven homered as part of a six-run fifth, Max Muncy hit a go-ahead home run and Jack Perkins earned his first win since April as the Athletics rallied for a 7-6 win in the rubber game at Daikin Park.

“I think today was one of the better wins for this club in a long time,” manager Mark Kotsay said. “The start we had, we had some wins that were meaningful and impactful, but today was a great win for this group, especially just the way they fought. Not just last night, but today in grinding out a win being down 6-0.”

Muncy gave the Athletics a one-run lead in the seventh with a solo home run to left-center off Astros reliever Steven Okert.

“I was just looking to hit the ball hard somewhere,” Muncy said. “He threw me a couple sliders early, and then, he left that fastball middle, and I got it.”

Trailing, 6-0, heading into the fifth, the A’s rallied to tie it up.

Donovan Walton singled to lead off the inning and Darell Hernaiz walked to set up Serven’s Statcast-projected 402-foot three-run homer to cut the lead in half.

Henry Bolte singled, and after Carlos Cortes struck out, Zack Gelof was hit by a pitch to set up Lawrence Butler’s RBI double and Tommy White’s two-run single to knot the score at 6.

“It’s just about baserunners,” Kotsay said. “Just one at-bat at a time, get some guys on base and we did. We popped a three-run homer and that’s a big momentum shift in the game. Then, we continued to take good at-bats, and it resulted in probably one of the bigger innings for us in a while offensively.”

Muncy said there was no quit in the team.

“It’s get as many runs as we can and go from there,” Muncy said. “Try not to look at the scoreboard too much. Just do our job and play winning baseball. That’s what we did tonight.”

The Astros jumped on opener Brady Basso for three runs in the first, capped by a two-run homer by Jose Altuve.

Perkins, who was the main pitcher for the A’s, struggled with his command in the second inning, walking the bases loaded before issuing a walk to Altuve to make it 4-0.

Perkins yielded three runs (one earned) on three hits with six strikeouts in five innings, but he issued a career-high five walks.

“Coming off last outing where we did the same thing with Basso and him, obviously, it didn’t go as well this outing for Basso to start the game. Perk came in and was a little shaky, couple walks, gave up a run,” Kotsay said. “But to put up zeros, get us through six innings, keep us in the game with a chance to win, I thought was great.”

Perkins picked up his first win since April 18, snapping a nine-game losing streak.

“It’s been a while, but it is what it is,” Perkins said. “Each game I go out there, I try to do my best to give our team a chance to win. This wasn’t a win where I did it. It was a full team win across the board. Relievers, hitters, the way we battled, so just a good team win overall. I think I’m more happy for the team that we got the win, because it showed it doesn’t matter the deficit. We can put a rally together. We can come back and get it done.”

Perkins had one of his best performances of the season in his previous outing, throwing 3 2/3 scoreless innings on Tuesday against the Royals in relief. In his three starts to begin August, the right-hander had allowed 19 runs in 13 1/3 innings.

The A’s went 2-5 on the seven-game road trip to Kansas City and Houston, but the two come-from-behind wins against the AL West-leading Astros showed the fight in the Athletics.

“Coming off getting swept in Kansas City four games and the way we lost a couple, for this team to come in against a divisional opponent and first-place team, to take a series says a lot about the group,” Kotsay said.