{{pageModel.leagueAbbr}} {{pageModel.subtitle}} | Las Vegas Review-Journal
Major League Baseball
Houston 12, Oakland 9
When: 3:35 PM ET, Thursday, June 22, 2017
Where: Oakland Coliseum, Oakland, California
Temperature: 88°
Umpires: Home - Mike Everitt, 1B - Bill Welke, 2B - Jordan Baker, 3B - Bruce Dreckman
Attendance: 18747

OAKLAND, Calif. -- The Houston Astros got off to a scary start Thursday afternoon against the Oakland Athletics when leadoff hitter George Springer was hit in the left hand by a Jesse Hahn fastball five pitches into the game.

Springer came out of the game, but that was the end of the bad news for the red-hot Astros.

Jake Marisnick, who replaced Springer, and Marwin Gonzalez hit three-run homers in the second inning and rookie right-hander David Paulino pitched 5 1/3 solid innings, leading the Astros to a 12-9 victory over the Athletics and a sweep of their four-game series at the Coliseum.

X-rays on Springer's left hand were negative. He is day to day with a contusion and hopes to play Friday at Seattle.

"He's already lobbying for leading off tomorrow," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said of Springer, who has 21 home runs. "We were very, very cautious with pulling him out. He wanted to stay in and run and see if he could get the feeling back in his hand, but I told him I wanted to get Jake in there. It all worked out with Jake hitting a homer and George being OK. It ended up being a really good day for us."

The Astros defeated the A's at Oakland Coliseum for the 10th straight time and have won 15 of the past 16 games overall against Oakland. Houston, which swept the A's in Oakland for the third straight time, had their seventh series sweep of the season and fifth on the road.

The Astros improved to a major league-best 50-24. The last-place A's (31-42) trail the first-place Astros by a season-high 18 1/2 games in the American League West.

Former A's outfielder Josh Reddick went 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and a solo homer, his seventh blast of the season for the Astros. He also walked and scored four runs, matching his career high, and finished a single shy of his first career cycle. Evan Gattis had three RBIs.

The A's were coming off a four-game sweep of the Yankees before being swept by Houston.

"They were in pretty high spirits," Reddick said, looking back to the start of the series. "We just had a tough homestand as well, so we were kind of down in the dumps a little bit. To be able to come out here and put it on them for four games was pretty special. Anytime you can sweep somebody it's going to be fun."

Paulino (2-0) gave up three runs and seven hits, struck out six and walked two. He was coming off his first career major-league victory, a 7-1 win over Boston on Saturday. Now he has his first winning streak in the big leagues.

The A's trailed 10-0 after two innings but made a late push, scoring six times in the eighth inning to cut Houston's lead to 12-9. Rajai Davis, catcher Bruce Maxwell, Adam Rosales and Matt Olson doubled during the inning. Reliever Dayan Diaz gave up five runs and retired only one batter before giving way to Michael Feliz, who gave up one run.

Chris Devenski pitched a perfect ninth with three strikeouts for his third save.

Hahn (4-4) gave up 10 runs (nine earned) -- both career highs -- in two innings. He allowed six hits, including two home runs, walked three and struck out none. Hahn had gone 2-0 with a 2.81 ERA in his three previous starts.

"I really don't have an answer for it," Hahn said. "I just didn't have good stuff. I think it was one of those starts where no matter what I did, no matter how much I battled I couldn't find anything."

Maxwell was called up from Triple-A Nashville and went 3-for-4 with a double, an RBI and a run for the A's. Maxwell took the roster spot of catcher Stephen Vogt, a two-time American League All-Star who was designated for assignment as the A's continued a youth movement. Olson was also called up from Nashville and went 2-for-3 with a double, two walks and a run.

The Astros took a 2-0 lead in the first inning. After hitting Springer, Hahn had back-to-backs walks and then gave up sacrifice flies to Carlos Beltran and Gattis.

Houston scored eight times in the second to make it 10-0. Yuli Gurriel hit a leadoff single and moved to third on Norichika Aoki's double. Marisnick followed with blast to left-center field, his career-high 10th homer of the season.

"We were being selective," Marisnick said. "We were making them come in the zone, taking our walks and when we had the chance, put some good swings on balls."

The Astros reloaded the bases on Reddick's double, a walk to Carlos Correa and an error by A's first baseman Yonder Alonso. Gattis hit a two-run single, extending Houston's lead to 7-0, and Gonzalez launched a home run to right, his 13th of the season, making it 10-0.

"It just wasn't there for him today," A's manager Bob Melvin said of Hahn. "The velocity wasn't there, command wasn't there. So it put us in a little bit of a tough hole but it was good to see these youngsters battle back too."

NOTES: Oakland 3B Matt Chapman (left knee infection) was placed on the disabled list. He had missed the previous three games while being treated orally with antibiotics. He was sent to a hospital to receive antibiotics intravenously. ... Houston 2B Jose Altuve was out of the lineup for the fourth time this season, getting a rare day off. ... Astros LF Norichika Aoki went 3-for-5 with two doubles.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Houston   Oakland
David Paulino Player Jesse Hahn
Win W/L Loss
5.1 IP 2.0
6 Strikeouts 0
7 Hits 6
5.06 ERA 40.50
Hitting
Houston   Oakland
Josh Reddick Player Bruce Maxwell
3 Hits 3
1 RBI 1
1 HR 0
9 TB 4
.750 Avg .750
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Houston 13 3 28 .342 15 7 12 3 0 1
Oakland 12 0 19 .316 15 12 8 5 0 1