LOS ANGELES – One day while racqueting outside the ball park a simple abandoned groundball determined the course of Game 1 of the Top Five Division Series.
Two outs by Marcus Semian in the sixth inning at Dodger Stadium led to an undisclosed four, and the Astros – who entered the third and second innings early in the game – won 10-5. Shortstop Carlos Correa, a member of the Houston team that won the 2017 World Series in Los Angeles, attacked two of the Astros’ three homers, while George Springer recorded four of Houston’s 16 wins.
2006 A.L.C.S. A. has played the first game of each of the last eight post game series, including the first three single wild-card game losses. Last week, they dropped Game 1 against the White Sox before returning and won the next two in the wild-card series.
“We weren’t panicking in any way or anything like that,” Oakland starter Chris Posit said. “Play our game, don’t worry about all the extra tricks and fix the script.”
“We have to watch it because we have to win three-quarters of the series,” said First Commander Matt Olsen. “We’ve done it a lot of times during the season.”
J.P., who had a terrible regular season. Two seasons. Josh Reddick could not handle a regular grinder.
“Tough game,” Olson said. “Reddick was a good runner, he hit it from the end of the bat, it was rolling very slowly, we were on the shift – Marcus had to cut towards the second floor. It’s going to happen. Things that happened after that, it’s baseball. Put it in the back view and come back tomorrow.”
This opened the door for Houston: Martin Maldonado singles, then Springer doubled the third base line and sent it to Reddick.
“Two out, no one, they get four points – you have to give them a little credit too,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin. “They hit some good pitches. They were very tireless after that inning and they took advantage of it.”
Jose Altuay, who won the wild-card series by hitting .219 in the regular season, took two runs, and Jake Deakman took charge from Wendelken and gave Michael Brandley’s RBI single.
“Errors happen,” Bassid said. “Obviously, it happened with two outs – we can’t let that snowball into four runs, a pitcher.”
In the second inning Olsen had an out and Chris Davis – when he got a rare start against a right-handed player – started the Homers ’layer, with Astros starter Lance McCullers Jr. hitting a shot into the right-hand seats.
Davis has been a good story for Auckland for the past several weeks as his bat started to get hot. He hit .296 in September, and his two post-season homers match his release for the 60-game regular season.
“He’s been doing his best work here lately,” Melvin said.
“He’s back,” Bassid said. “I think it’s the kind of capture in the world that he’s really back to normal.”
The next inning, Rookie Sean Murphy carried a flying ball into the center field … above the fence, the second homer of the post season. Houston manager Dusty Baker was interviewed while batting on DBS, and when the ball went up in the air, Baker said, “Oh, Lord. ”There is no doubt that Baker complained during a regular season series that the Astros were playing Murphy“ like Johnny Bench ”.
Olson finished the fourth game with a 0-13 funk with a shot centered on McCullers. But A and are more likely to score in third and fourth place. In third place they were without outs, but Jake Lamb scored in the double, and Mark Kanha was out. In fourth place, they had men in the corners with no outs and Ramon Larano got out, Murphy hit the broken bat topper and Tommy La Stella got out. Auckland went 0-for-6 with the men, but they couldn’t even put the men in the latter stages. Only one man (Chad Binder, walk) reached the final four innings against Houston’s Pulbun, which did not allow a run this post season.
Oakland’s best performance of the day should not be lost in the turmoil: Yusmiro Pettit took charge with two and outs for starter Chris Posit in fifth and looked for Brandley, then Alex Breckman pop up and Kyle Tucker out to fly. “It’s a big time,” Olson said. “That’s what he uses.”
Breckman hit a solo homer from Posit in the fourth, Korea hit a two-run homer in the same innings, and then a solo shot to Lou Trivino in the seventh. Astros added two more in ninth place against rookie Jordan Weams, who was added to the list for the series after being dropped from the wild-card list.
Susan Schlasser is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: us Susanslasser
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