OAKLAND -- By the end of the fifth inning on Saturday night, Astros fans might have been thinking about another combined no-hitter started by Cristian Javier. Perhaps they were thinking about pulling within two games of the Rangers for first place in the American League West.
Instead, it was the Houston offense that looked listless by the end of the night. The Astros’ lone run of the evening came on a homer from Alex Bregman, as the A’s pulled off a 4-1 victory at the Coliseum.
Javier has taken part in two combined no-hitters the past 13 months, and it looked like he was on the way toward another.
Last October, Javier combined forces with Bryan Abreu, Rafael Montero and Ryan Pressly to throw the first postseason no-hitter in MLB history in Game 4 of the World Series. Last June, the trio of Javier, Hector Neris and Pressly no-hit the Yankees.
No such luck on Saturday night. Though he struggled with his command throughout the evening, Javier held the A’s hitless through five innings before Oakland rookie Zack Gelof finally broke up the no-no with a one-out single in the sixth.
“I wasn’t focused on that,” Javier said of the possibility of a no-hitter. “I was just focused on trying to get the outs as quickly as possible.”
Javier might have been focused on the task at hand, but other observers, like Astros manager Dusty Baker, couldn’t help but think about another no-no.
“When a guy has a no-hitter, everybody knows it,” Baker said. “When a guy’s thrown a no-hitter in the past, you really know it. He knows how to deal with it. It was just a tough loss.”
Oakland scraped together a couple of runs to take the lead in the sixth, before Gelof hit his first career dinger and Seth Brown hit a solo shot to bring the game to its final margin.
The Astros hold the MLB’s best average with runners in scoring position and two outs (.280), but they went 0-for-5 in those situations Saturday night.
“I believe in the law of averages, big time,” Baker said. “It’s just hard to keep getting those hits, but we expect ‘em and look forward to getting ‘em.”
Likewise, Bregman was hung up on his two early at-bats with RISP instead of basking in the glow of his third homer in as many days.
“My first two at-bats, I didn’t get the job done,” Bregman said. “We had a guy at second base both times. I gotta be better in those situations and drive those runners in. Those two-out RBIs are huge.”
Astros catcher Yainer Diaz nearly tied up the game with a three-run shot off A’s closer Trevor May in the ninth inning, but Tony Kemp hauled in the ball at the left-field wall.
“I thought that ball had a chance,” Baker said.
Houston missed out on an opportunity to gain some ground in the AL West. Before the A’s and Astros even started their matchup, the Dodgers had drubbed the Rangers, 16-3.
Earlier this series, Baker likened the AL West race to a chase on the freeway. For now, the Rangers still hold a three-game lead atop the division.
“Like I told our guys, we just gotta tread water and stay in the rearview mirror,” Baker said. “We were in the side mirror at one time -- we were two games out. We fell back, but we’re still in the rearview mirror.”
The Lone Star Series between the AL West rivals resumes on Monday in Houston -- but the Astros know better than to overlook the A’s, who will go for a series split in Sunday’s finale.