WEST SACRAMENTO — For four hours Sunday afternoon, the Houston Astros and the Athletics put on one of the wildest games of the early season. In the end, it was Brent Rooker who had the last word.
Rooker crushed a three-run walk-off homer off Bryan Abreu in the bottom of the tenth inning, lifting the Athletics to a 12-10 victory at Sutter Health Park and handing Houston a gut-punch loss that ended the road trip on a sour note. Rooker finished with two home runs and six RBI, doing most of his damage in the moments that mattered most.
The Astros built a 3-0 lead through four innings, with Yordan Alvarez delivering a two-run homer in the fifth—his fourth of the season. But Oakland answered immediately. The Athletics sent eight men to the plate in the bottom of the fifth, with Carlos Cortes doubling home a run, Tyler Soderstrom following with a three-run triple and Rooker adding a sacrifice fly to complete a five-run inning that put the A’s ahead 5-3.
Houston tied it in the top of the seventh on Walker’s two-run homer, but the Athletics answered immediately in the bottom half. Rooker launched a two-run homer off AJ Blubaugh to cap a four-run inning and put the A’s ahead 9-5. Jake Meyers hit his first home run of the season in the eighth to make it 9-8, and Cam Smith then came through with a two-run single—all with two outs—to tie the game at 9-9.
The Astros took a brief lead in the tenth on a Carlos Correa RBI single, but Abreu could not hold it. He walked Tyler Soderstrom, threw a wild pitch to move Shea Langeliers to third, then walked Nick Kurtz to load the bases. Rooker ended it with one swing.
Lance McCullers pitched four innings, allowing three runs on five hits and three walks. Blubaugh, one of the bullpen’s early-season bright spots, was tagged for four runs on five hits in two innings. Abreu was charged with the loss after surrendering three runs without recording an out.
Two Carlos Correa errors and a McCullers pickoff throwing error also contributed to a sloppy afternoon in the field.
The Astros finish the road trip 1-2 and head to Colorado for a three-game series beginning Monday. With Hunter Brown now on the injured list with a right shoulder strain, the questions surrounding this rotation are only going to grow louder.
Houston’s record stands at 6-4.
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