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Houston Astros (3-5) vs. Oakland Athletics (5-4), 7:10 p.m. (CST)
TV: Roots Sports SW, MLB.TV
Radio: KBME 790 AM, KLAT 1010 AM
Athletics SBNation Blog: Athletics Nation
Pitching matchup
RHP Collin McHugh (1-0, 1.50 ERA, 1.17 WHIP) vs. LHP Drew Pomeranz (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.29 WHIP)
Preview
Still miss baseball? Ready to gouge your eyeballs out? The Astros have been outscored 30-17 through it's first eight game, and has been held to one run or less in half of their games. Houston leads the league in strikeouts (79) and are tied the lowest batting average in the league (.197).
Tonight doesn't seem like the night to turn that around, Drew Pomeranz looked dominate in his first start. He shutout the Mariners for seven innings on April 10, holding them two hits and striking out six. Pomeranz missed much of 2014 after breaking his non-pitching hand by punching a chair after a poor start. He returned to the A's rotation on August 27 against the Astros allowing just one unearned run - 5.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 7 SO. Including that start, Pomeranz hasn't given up an earned run in his last 20.1 innings dating back to 2014. Now the Astros hitters' stats against Pomeranz:
| BATTER | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
| Jose Altuve | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.25 |
| Chris Carter | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.25 |
| Matt Dominguez | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0.333 |
| Jonathan Villar | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Hank Conger | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Robbie Grossman | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| L.J. Hoes | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jake Marisnick | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| George Springer | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Collin McHugh looks to stop the bleeding and build on his solid first start in 2015. McHugh held the Rangers to one run over six innings, striking out four and walking two. Doctor McHugh's curveball looked particularly devastating in Arlington. In his lone career start against Oakland, McHugh gave up one run through 8.2 innings on April 27, 2014. Now the A's history against McHugh:
| BATTER | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
| Ben Zobrist | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0.4 |
| Billy Butler | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Coco Crisp | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Josh Reddick | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Eric Sogard | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
The Astros will have a off day on Thursday and start a weekend series with the Angels on Friday.
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