Athletics 7, Astros 4: Giles, Astros implode late in Oakland

The Houston Astros left Seattle on a good note, and for seven and a half inning it appeared the team was building up on that success. The Astros led 4-2 with setup man Ken Giles entering the game. Everything went downhill from there, as the Astros lost 7-4 on Friday night at Oakland Column.

Giles gave up a no-dought home run to Marcus Semien. Billy Burns singled, stole second and moved to third on an error. Former Astros Jed Lowrie drove in Burns with a sacrifice fly to right. Just like that the game when from the Astros cruising to a victory to a tied ballgame in a matter of three batters.

The icing on the cake was Carlos Gomez being thrown out attempting to stretch a double into a triple to start the night inning and Yonder Alonso thumping a Pat Neshek pitch for a three-run home run to end the game.

The ending of the game overshadows the excellent outing that Mike Fiers posted for the Astros. Fiers allowed two earned runs on seven hits, walking zero and striking out five.

The Astros tangled with Sean Manaea in his first career start, the Astros touched the uber-prospect for four runs over five innings.

Evan Gattis started the scoring with his first home run of the season in the second inning. The Astros were able to drive in runners in scoring position in the sixth inning. George Springer was hit by a pitch and Carlos Correa walked to start the inning. Gattis singled in Springer, sending Manaea to the bench.

Tyler White snapped his funk with the second RBI single in the inning. Marwin Gonzalez hit a ground rule double to score one more run, but the ground rule kept a fifth run from scoring. Erik Kratz struck out to end the inning.