HOUSTON -- 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 on Saturday night, 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.
Donovan Walton led off the third inning with a Statcast-projected 422-foot solo home run to center to open the night’s scoring.
Houston tied it in the fourth on an RBI double by Yainer Diaz and took a 3-1 lead in the seventh on a solo home run by Daulton Varsho and an RBI single by Jeremy Peña.
Lopez yielded one run on three hits with a season-high-tying nine strikeouts in six innings. Lopez has allowed three runs or fewer in eight straight outings.
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.
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.