Blackburn expected to start as Oakland hosts Houston

Houston Astros (91-64, first in the AL West) vs. Oakland Athletics (84-71, third in the AL West)

Oakland, California; Sunday, 4:07 p.m. EDT

PITCHING PROBABLES: Astros: Jake Odorizzi (6-7, 0.00 ERA) Athletics: Paul Blackburn (1-3, 5.17 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 23 strikeouts)

LINE: Athletics -101, Astros -117; over/under is 9 runs

BOTTOM LINE: Oakland and Houston will meet on Sunday.

The Athletics are 42-38 on their home turf. Oakland is slugging .406 as a unit. Matt Olson leads the club with a .547 slugging percentage, including 72 extra-base hits and 38 home runs.

The Astros have gone 44-36 away from home. Houston has a team on-base percentage of .337, led by Yuli Gurriel with a mark of .379.

The Athletics won the last meeting 2-1. Andrew Chafin secured his second victory and Starling Marte went 1-for-5 with a double and an RBI for Oakland. Ryan Pressly registered his third loss for Houston.

TOP PERFORMERS: Olson leads the Athletics with 72 extra base hits and is slugging .547.

Yordan Alvarez leads the Astros with 32 home runs and has 101 RBI.

LAST 10 GAMES: Athletics: 6-4, .224 batting average, 2.47 ERA, outscored opponents by 13 runs

Astros: 6-4, .250 batting average, 4.09 ERA, outscored opponents by 16 runs

INJURIES: Athletics: Trevor Rosenthal: (chest), Daulton Jefferies: (elbow), Mike Fiers: (right elbow), Stephen Piscotty: (wrist), Elvis Andrus: (leg), Mitch Moreland: (wrist).

Astros: Justin Verlander: (elbow), Andre Scrubb: (shoulder), Jake Odorizzi: (foot), Rafael Montero: (shoulder), Tyler Ivey: (undisclosed), Zack Greinke: (neck), Kent Emanuel: (elbow), Pedro Baez: (shoulder), Michael Brantley: (knee), Freudis Nova: (knee), Taylor Jones: (covid-19).

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.