Oakland Athletics (63-82, fourth in the AL West) vs. Houston Astros (77-67, first in the AL West)
Houston; Wednesday, 8:10 p.m. EDT
PITCHING PROBABLES: Athletics: Joey Estes (6-7, 4.46 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 86 strikeouts); Astros: Hunter Brown (11-7, 3.41 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 161 strikeouts)
: LINE Astros -239, Athletics +194; over/under is 8 runs
BOTTOM LINE: The Oakland Athletics meet the Houston Astros with a 1-0 series lead.
Houston has a 77-67 record overall and a 41-31 record at home. The Astros have the eighth-best team on-base percentage in MLB play at .321.
Oakland is 27-43 in road games and 63-82 overall. The Athletics have the 10th-ranked team batting average in the AL at .234.
The teams meet Wednesday for the 12th time this season. The Astros lead the season series 7-4.
TOP PERFORMERS: Yordan Alvarez leads the Astros with 65 extra base hits (31 doubles, two triples and 32 home runs). Alex Bregman is 9-for-38 with two doubles, two home runs and five RBI over the past 10 games.
Brent Rooker leads the Athletics with a .298 batting average, and has 25 doubles, two triples, 35 home runs, 53 walks and 99 RBI. Lawrence Butler is 16-for-42 with two home runs and three RBI over the past 10 games.
LAST 10 GAMES: Astros: 5-5, .259 batting average, 3.40 ERA, outscored opponents by six runs
Athletics: 4-6, .242 batting average, 4.67 ERA, outscored by 23 runs
INJURIES: Astros: Chas McCormick: day-to-day (wrist), J.P. France: 60-Day IL (undisclosed), Cristian Javier: 60-Day IL (forearm), Jose Urquidy: 60-Day IL (forearm), Oliver Ortega: 60-Day IL (elbow), Bennett Sousa: 60-Day IL (shoulder), Penn Murfee: 60-Day IL (elbow), Luis Garcia: 60-Day IL (elbow), Lance McCullers Jr.: 60-Day IL (elbow), Kendall Graveman: 60-Day IL (elbow)
Athletics: Osvaldo Bido: 15-Day IL (wrist), Esteury Ruiz: 60-Day IL (wrist), Miguel Andujar: 60-Day IL (muscle), Austin Adams: 15-Day IL (forearm), Luis Medina: 60-Day IL (elbow), Tyler Soderstrom: 10-Day IL (undisclosed), Alex Wood: 60-Day IL (rotator cuff), Ken Waldichuk: 60-Day IL (elbow), Trevor Gott: 60-Day IL (elbow)
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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.