HOUSTON — Ramón Laureano hit a two-run homer and former Lewis-Clark State standout Seth Brown connected for his first big league home run and the Oakland Athletics beat the Houston Astros 7-3 on Saturday to win the series.
The Astros won the opener 6-2 on Thursday to give them five consecutive victories against the A’s after a four-game sweep to start the season.
But Oakland’s offense, which sputtered as the A’s limped to a 1-7 start, got going on Friday in a 6-2 win powered by three homers and kept it going in the series finale by piling up a season-high 11 hits. The A’s and Astros are scheduled off today.
Oakland manager Bob Melvin was thrilled to see his team rebound after its terrible start this year against the Astros.
“It was huge,” Melvin said. “Not only did we lose that series, every game we got blown out and that’s a tough way to start the season. It was important for us to gain some confidence against them. To be able to respond after that and losing (Thursday) was big for us.”
There were two outs in the fifth when the A’s got a single from Mark Canha. Laureano followed with his drive, which bounced off the train tracks above left field, to push the lead to 4-0.
The bases were loaded with two outs in the seventh when Jed Lowrie knocked a single into shallow center field to stretch Oakland’s advantage to 6-0.
Brown sent a homer into the second deck in the eighth to give the Athletics five home runs in the past two games after they managed just three in their first eight.
