Houston seemingly owned the A’s for much of this season, taking 12 of the first 14 meetings between the teams.
But after Oakland dusted the Astros 11-1 behind Daniel Gossett’s fine start in the opener of a doubleheader at the Coliseum on Saturday afternoon, lo and behold, the A’s had won three in a row over the Western Division leaders.
And the Astros, who owned a seemingly comfortable lead for the AL’s best record a few weeks ago, had that margin cut to a half-game over Cleveland, which beat the Orioles 4-2 earlier Saturday for its 17th consecutive win.