A's edge AL West-leading Astros again on walk-off hit in 9th

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Mark Canha hit an RBI single with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning and the Oakland Athletics again beat Houston with their final swing, edging the AL West-leading Astros 4-3 Sunday.

The A’s swept the three-game series to move up in the playoff chase. They began the day four games behind AL wild card co-leaders Boston and New York by four games, with Toronto and Seattle also in the mix.

Alex Bregman homered for the Astros, whose magic number to clinch the division stayed at 2.

“I’m glad we’ve got an off day tomorrow,” said Houston manager Dusty Baker, whose club ended a streak of 17 games in 17 days. “This was a tough series. Two walk-offs and the other game was close until the end. This was tough. It was real tough. Things will change, I know it.”

A day after Starling Marte hit a game-ending double to beat Houston 2-1 — with Elvis Andrus breaking his leg as he scored his winning run — the A’s again struck in the ninth.

Sean Murphy led off with a single against Ryne Stanek (3-5) and Vimael Machin’s bunt popped past diving first baseman Yuli Gurriel for a hit, a passed ball moved both runners up.

Marte popped out and Matt Olson was intentionally walked before Ryan Pressly replaced Stanek. Canha, who had an RBI single in the seventh, hit Pressly’s first pitch off the wall in left-center.

“I try not too look for pitches as much as just try to get into the flow of the at-bat and usually that means not swinging at the first pitch,” Canha said. “But this AB, I felt good. I said to myself, ‘If you see it well, let it rip.’ I just saw it well out of the hand.”

The Astros missed a chance to take the lead in the ninth when Jose Siri was thrown out trying to score from first on Bregman’s bloop single. Siri, who reached on a one-out single,...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/A-s-edge-AL-West-leading-Astros-again-on-walk-off-16489298.php