A's turn tables on Astros late after Lopez's latest gem

HOUSTON -- To say the season hasn’t gone the way the Athletics hoped would be an understatement, but that doesn’t mean they'll stop battling. Down two headed into the eighth against the Astros on Saturday night, the A’s fight showed through.

Jacob Lopez pitched six strong innings in his third quality start of the season and the Athletics scored three runs in the eighth to rally for a 4-3 win over the Astros at Daikin Park, snapping a five-game losing streak.

Trailing 3-1 heading into the eighth, Jeff McNeil led off with a single and Zack Gelof walked. After pinch-hitter Alika Williams bunted them over, McNeil scored on a wild pitch and Gelof scored on a Lawrence Butler RBI single.

Tommy White followed with a double before Jonah Heim gave the A’s a 4-3 lead with an RBI groundout.

“Obviously, McNeil leading off with a hit, the Gelof at-bat was the one that really led to the inning,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Alika coming off the bench and laying down a good bunt. The wild pitch obviously helped, but Lawrence’s at-bat, putting the ball in play really hard, I just thought the momentum of the inning really carried through. Each at-bat, each guy going up there did their job. Executing the at-bats and giving us the lead.”

The A's improved to 6-63 this season when trailing after seven innings.

“We never give up,” Butler said. “Comeback wins have been the name of the game for us this year. We feel like no lead is safe, so just keep going out there, putting up good at-bats, keep grinding and trying to get the next man up.”

Donovan Walton led off the third inning with a Statcast-projected 422-foot solo home run to center to open the night’s scoring.

The A’s pitching did what it needed to do to keep the game close.

Lopez yielded one run on three hits with a season-high-tying nine strikeouts. Over his last five starts, he has 37 strikeouts to seven walks.

“Everything was working really well, all four pitches,” Lopez said. “Jonah was doing a great job throughout the whole lineup of mixing it up. I think that’s when my stuff plays best.”

Lopez relied mostly on a mix of sliders and four-seam fastballs. The left-hander threw 40 sliders, getting 11 whiffs on 23 swings and 28 four-seamers, generating four whiffs. Four of Lopez’s strikeouts came via the slider and five were on the four-seamer.

“Big swing-and-miss slider tonight,” Kotsay said. “I thought he had everything working. I think if you can handle this lineup as a lefty -- I think this club has had some success against left-handed pitching overall -- but for Jacob tonight, he continued the way he’s been throwing the baseball. He’s a different kid right now, and I think we’re seeing a maturity that we’ve been waiting on in all aspects and tonight showed.”

Lopez said he could tell his slider was going to work when he got the first whiff on it in the first inning.

“I think in the first inning when I had that swing-and-miss slider out of the gate, I knew I could capitalize on it,” Lopez said. "Just trying to throw the three other pitches and let the slider be the wipeout pitch.”

Like J.T. Ginn on Friday night, Lopez got a lot of soft contact. The Astros had five hard-hit balls against the southpaw and finished with an average exit velocity of 79.5 mph.

“A lot of soft contact,” Kotsay said. “That’s just execution of his pitches and changing speeds, getting hitters out front, off balance. He did it all night.”

Despite all the struggles the A’s have been through so far this season, including having 13 players currently on the injured list, the win on Saturday night proved the team won’t stop battling.

“It definitely says a lot about the group,” Kotsay said. “We know where we’re at. There’s no quit. We’re not going to quit. We owe it to the fans. We owe it to the organization to the group of guys in that clubhouse to each other to finish this year as strong as we can. That showed again tonight.”