Verlander gets plenty of support in Astros 7-3 win over A’s

By MICHAEL WAGAMAN

Justin Verlander pitched five-hit ball over seven innings and the Houston Astros beat the Oakland Athletics 7-3 Thursday afternoon for their eighth straight win.

Brian McCann homered for the first time in nearly a month. Carlos Correa, Jose Altuve and Josh Reddick were among five players with two hits apiece as Houston completed the three-game sweep.

Evan Gattis, who set a franchise record with five RBIs in each of the first two games of the series, went 1 for 5.

The winning streak is the Astros longest since they won 11 straight May 25-June 5 last season on the way to their first World Series championship. Houston also improved to 8-1 against Oakland this season.

Khris Davis and Matt Olson homered for the A’s. It was Davis’ third home run in three consecutive at-bats after going deep in his final two plate appearances Wednesday.

Both home runs came off Verlander, who went into the day leading the majors with a 1.45 ERA.

Still, Verlander (9-2) was sharp in his first appearance against the A’s since 2016 and faced three over the minimum before Oakland scored twice in the seventh. The six-time All-Star had seven strikeouts, allowed three runs and didn’t walk a batter while earning his fifth consecutive win.

The Astros outscored the A’s 26-11 in the series. They also got some help from Oakland third baseman Matt Chapman, who committed a pair of errors that led to a pair of unearned runs in the sixth.

A’s starter Frankie Montas (3-1) allowed five earned runs and 11 hits over 5 1/3 innings. He walked four.

___

More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball

(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)