HOUSTON -- If there were any lingering effects from the Astros' deflating loss from the night before, the Astros surely hid it from the masses.They came out swinging on Wednesday -- and swinging, and swinging, and swinging -- scoring six runs right off the bat, so to speak, to coast to an easy 8-1 win over the AL West-leading Oakland Athletics behind Dallas Keuchel's complete game. 
Depsite the wide discrepancy in their positioning in the standings -- the A's, with the best record in baseball, are in first place, a whopping 22 1/2 games in front of the fourth-place Astros -- the series between these two teams went in favor of the Astros, who with a slightly better fortune in the ninth inning Tuesday could have been on the winning end of a sweep.The Astros scored six runs off Jason Hammel in the first frame, tying their season high for scoring in a single inning. Ten Astros came to the plate, with Jose Altuve getting two at-bats, and, ironically enough, failing to reach base in either of them. It didn't matter, though, considering six of his teammates logged hits, including a two-run homer from No. 8 hitter Robbie Grossman that helped pad the sizeable lead.Keuchel, who was on the losing end of an offensive dud his last time out, evened things out this time around. He cruised through his fourth complete game of the season and the fifth of his career, his only blemish arriving in the second inning via a leadoff homer by Josh Donaldson.Hammel, who settled down to retire nine of 10 batters from the second through the fourth, exited the game after Jon Singleton deposited an opposite-field homer into the Crawford Boxes, a two-run shot with one out in the fifth that put the game out of reach.Alyson Footer / MLB.com
Depsite the wide discrepancy in their positioning in the standings -- the A's, with the best record in baseball, are in first place, a whopping 22 1/2 games in front of the fourth-place Astros -- the series between these two teams went in favor of the Astros, who with a slightly better fortune in the ninth inning Tuesday could have been on the winning end of a sweep.The Astros scored six runs off Jason Hammel in the first frame, tying their season high for scoring in a single inning. Ten Astros came to the plate, with Jose Altuve getting two at-bats, and, ironically enough, failing to reach base in either of them. It didn't matter, though, considering six of his teammates logged hits, including a two-run homer from No. 8 hitter Robbie Grossman that helped pad the sizeable lead.Keuchel, who was on the losing end of an offensive dud his last time out, evened things out this time around. He cruised through his fourth complete game of the season and the fifth of his career, his only blemish arriving in the second inning via a leadoff homer by Josh Donaldson.Hammel, who settled down to retire nine of 10 batters from the second through the fourth, exited the game after Jon Singleton deposited an opposite-field homer into the Crawford Boxes, a two-run shot with one out in the fifth that put the game out of reach.Alyson Footer / MLB.com
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