A's Beat Houston Astros with Three Consecutive Bunts

Jason Burke | Sep 11, 2024

Sep 10, 2024; Houston, Texas, USA; Oakland Athletics shortstop Jacob Wilson (5) bunts safely against the Houston Astros in the 10th inning at Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Thomas Shea-Imagn Images / Thomas Shea-Imagn Images

The Oakland Athletics officially secured a big win on Tuesday night in Houston, 4-3, which will keep them from losing 100+ games for a third consecutive season, and they did it by bunting in three consecutive at-bats in extra innings.

The Houston Astros are most likely headed to the postseason and are currently in line for their seventh AL West crown in eight years. Entering play on Wednesday, they're up 4.5 games on the Seattle Mariners with 18 to play. While the A's are a bit further back in the standings overall for the season, sitting 14.5 games back of Houston in the West, Oakland has a 33-26 record since July 1, while the Astros have been just a touch better at 35-26. These two teams are playing at a similar level over the past few months.

While the baseball world is enamored with exit velocities, bat speed, spin rates and launch angles, the A's ultimately took the lead and added on with three straight bunts, whose exit velocities were 25.8 miles per hour, 30.1 mph, and 34.1 mph. The first two launch angles were directly into the ground at -61 degrees, -23, and for the final one Nick Allen pushed it a bit and got it in the air at 24 degrees.

The reason this was an option in the first place is that with the placed runner on second in extra innings, advancing the runner to third would give the team a chance to score and take the lead. Manager Mark Kotsay told reporters that the first batter, Daz Cameron, was bunting for a hit, which he successfully achieved, putting runners on first and third with nobody out in the 12th inning.

Max Schuemann was next up, and he laid down a beauty, which allowed Zack Gelof to charge home from third base without a throw, while Cameron was able to go first to third on the play. Nick Allen pushed his bunt past the pitcher, which allowed Cameron to score a second run.

The A's bunted 3 times in a row and I'm totally serious.pic.twitter.com/qi3YfiuLbH

— Codify (@CodifyBaseball) September 11, 2024

With 17 games left for the A's, even if they went 7-10 the rest of the way, they would finish with a 70-92 record, which would be a 20-game improvement over where they were a year ago. The guys in the clubhouse that we spoke with during the last homestand believe that being a .500 team in 2025 is a real possibility, and with Kotsay leading the charge (and sometimes calling for three bunts in a row), they could have a chance at getting there.