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Oakland A’s Game Thread: ALDS Game 4 at Houston Astros

Epic comeback, Part 2

By Alex Hall
Oakland Athletics v Texas Rangers Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images

The Oakland A’s have a comeback to make, but you have to take it one day at a time. They won Game 3 on Wednesday, so their season continues for another day. Now they must win again in Game 4 on Thursday, or else go home for the winter. Don’t worry about anything beyond that. Focus on the task at hand.

The A’s call on Frankie Montas to start the game against the Houston Astros. The right-hander has made one appearance in these playoffs but it came out of the bullpen, in the Wild Card Round against the Chicago White Sox. He struggled during the second half of the regular season but was brilliant in his season finale, striking out 13 of the 25 batters he faced in six innings against the Mariners. Of course, this Astros lineup is significantly better than Seattle’s crew.

Houston counters with their ace Zack Greinke, whose availability was in question due to arm soreness. The right-hander faced the A’s three times this year but Oakland won two of them. He also faced Montas twice, and the pair split the two meetings, both of which were short doubleheader contests. The A’s scored seven runs in 17 innings against him (3.71 ERA), including homers by Ramon Laureano and Khris Davis.

Oakland got good injury news too, as Tommy La Stella is back in the lineup. The second baseman was hit by a pitch in the elbow in Game 3 and had to leave, but apparently he’s good to go.

Click here to see the full rosters for both teams.

First pitch is 12:35 p.m., with the following options to watch or listen:

A’s lineup (away)

  1. SS Marcus Semien (R)
  2. 2B Tommy La Stella (L)
  3. 3B Chad Pinder (R)
  4. DH Khris Davis (R)
  5. 1B Matt Olson (L)
  6. RF Mark Canha (R)
  7. CF Ramon Laureano (R)
  8. LF Robbie Grossman (S)
  9. C Sean Murphy (R)
  • Frankie Montas, RHP

Piscotty out, Grossman in. And I guess we’re just not doing rest for catchers in this series, which is fair enough in the playoffs.

Astros lineup (home)

  1. CF George Springer (R)
  2. 2B Jose Altuve (R)
  3. DH Michael Brantley (L)
  4. 3B Alex Bregman (R)
  5. LF Kyle Tucker (L)
  6. SS Carlos Correa (R)
  7. 1B Yuli Gurriel (R)
  8. RF Josh Reddick (L)
  9. C Martin Maldonado (R)
  • Zack Greinke, RHP

Reddick back in against the righty, after his clutch pinch-hit strikeout in Game 3.

Let’s Go Oakland!

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