Nick Kurtz and Brent Rooker homered, and Gage Jump carried a shutout into the seventh inning as the visiting Athletics salvaged the finale of a three-game series against the Houston Astros with a 5-0 victory on Sunday.
The Athletics squared the season series with Houston at 3-3. They applied pressure on Astros starter Mike Burrows (3-8) and rode a second consecutive quality start from Jump, a rookie left-hander making his third career appearance.
Burrows stranded a pair of baserunners in the top of the second inning but proved unable to keep the Athletics in check in the third.
Alika Williams’ leadoff single set the table for Kurtz to hit his fifth homer in six games in Houston. His 12th home run of the season was a two-run shot that carried 389 feet to right-center field and into the home bullpen. Rooker extended the Athletics’ to 3-0 lead four batters later with an RBI double to left that plated Shea Langeliers, who singled and swiped second base with one out.
Zack Gelof opened the top of the fourth with a double and scored when Astros shortstop Jeremy Pena misplayed a Kurtz grounder with two outs. Burrows faced two additional batters following the error, and with one out in the fifth, he allowed a 397-foot blast to Rooker.
Rooker supplied the Athletics with a 5-0 lead with his 10th home run of the season and second of the series.
Burrows surrendered five runs (four earned) on eight hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He entered his 13th start of the season with the most losses, earned runs (43) and homers (15) allowed in the American League.
Jump (2-1) nearly matched his stellar road outing against the Chicago Cubs last Tuesday when he allowed one run over seven innings. He stranded runners in scoring position in the bottom of the first, second and third innings before getting on a roll that the Astros could not slow.
Jump retired 11 consecutive batters before allowing a one-out single to Cam Smith in the seventh. He departed after issuing a walk to the following batter, Jake Meyers.
Jump surrendered three hits and walked three while recording three strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings. Justin Sterner, Mark Leiter Jr. and Hogan Harris completed the combined four-hit shutout.
Smith went 2-for-3 with a walk and was the lone Astro with multiple hits.
–Field Level Media
