Well, now, this is the A’s team we expected and came to love last summer. This was a legit pitching duel, a nailbiter that the A’s pulled off in grand style thanks to a terrific start by Daniel Mengden, backed by home runs by Beau Taylor (his second) and Matt Chapman (his nineteenth!), capped by a save by newcloser Liam Hendriks.
Obviously, the win—and the two-game sweep—is awesome, but more than that, unless the Astros mount a 7-run inning, the A’s will close the AL West gap to just 7.0 games tonight, as they reach their high-water mark of the 2019 season, five games over the .