Sears hangs tough, shows composure vs. Astros

HOUSTON -- JP Sears rebounded nicely after a rough first inning to give the A's a start they needed, matching his career high with six solid innings and keeping Oakland close in a 3-2 loss to Houston on Saturday at Minute Maid Park.

Sears allowed two runs on five hits with seven strikeouts.

“Obviously, not happy with how the game started,” Sears said of a first inning that saw him labor with 37 pitches. “Settled in. Just felt like I located my fastball pretty well the last five innings. I kept guys off the slider a little bit. Fastball played up good for me today. Just tried to fill up the zone after that long first inning and keep the team in the game. I felt like I did that.”

The lefty retired 16 out of the final 17 batters he faced. He threw 55 pitches over his final five innings, a stark turnaround from his early troubles.

“That was an outstanding performance,” A's manager Mark Kotsay said. “I give the kid all the credit. That first inning didn’t get off to a good start. He was really one hit away from having to take him out of that game. He was at 35 pitches in that inning. He made two great pitches and got himself out of that inning and rolled off five scoreless.

“You love to see that in a young starter," added Kotsay. "He battled through that first inning and kept his composure and went out and gave his team a chance to win.”

"Sears, he pitched a very good game, too, other than that first inning,” Astros manager Dusty Baker said. “I was hoping when we had the bases loaded that we could get some more, but he settled down. He had pretty good fastball command, too. You saw how many called strikes he had low on the outside, and that's a very tough pitch to do anything with."

Sears allowed two runs and walked the bases loaded in that first frame, escaping further damage with a strikeout of Corey Julks.

After Saturday's strong performance, Sears has allowed three runs or fewer in six of his nine starts this season.

“I felt pretty good the last five or so [starts] just as far as the way my stuff is playing and the results I’ve been getting,” Sears said. “Just trying to stay on the attack mode and try to get five, six, seven innings every time I go out there.”

Kotsay has noticed the improvement from Sears as well.

“JP has done a nice job, and he continues to get better,” Kotsay said. “He’s continuing to work on his command, establishing his changeup, mixing speeds in the zone. This was a good lineup. It’s one of the better lineups he’s going to face. To get through six innings and only give up two runs, it’s a good job.”

Sears relied mainly on his fastball -- throwing it 59% (54 of 92 total pitches) of the time -- but he also worked in his sweeper 24 pitches. The lefty sat around 93 mph on the fastball.

“The fastball is what’s got me here in my career, so I am going to stick with that,” Sears said. “A lot of big league hitters out there can still hit fastballs even if they’re well-located, so I try to keep them off-balance.”

Oakland’s offense was not able to get much going on Saturday against Houston's Hunter Brown and three relievers, though Brent Rooker broke out of an 0-for-10 slump with two hits, including an RBI single in the fourth, and Esteury Ruiz used his legs for a second run in the sixth, stealing second base after singling and reaching third on a throwing error.

He scored on Ryan Noda’s sacrifice fly to tie it at 2-2. Ruiz finished with two hits and two stolen bases, logging his fourth consecutive multi-hit game.

Sears' outing was a bright spot in what's otherwise been a particularly difficult start to the season for A's pitchers.

Oakland’s starters entered the game 2-24 with a 7.49 ERA. Oakland pitching has allowed three runs or fewer six times this season now -- but Saturday was the first instance in a road game.

“We started the year off slow and now that we’re in the middle part of the year, we want to win, we want to be out there,” Sears said. “I want to get a win. That’s part of baseball, having to grind and finding the things that you can get better at throughout the year. Just trying to amplify the good things and reduce the bad things.”