OAKLAND, Calif. — A’s third baseman Danny Valencia stayed red hot Sunday for his new team, hitting a solo home run in the fourth inning and a walk-off single with two outs and the bases loaded in the ninth, leading Oakland to a 5-4 victory against Houston.
Since being claimed off waivers from Toronto on Aug. 3, Valencia has gone 7-for-16 (.438) with two doubles, two homers and four RBIs. Valencia made his third straight start and hit fourth for the straight game.
“We got a gift-wrapped present from Toronto, I promise you that,” said A’s right-hander Chris Bassitt, who allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings. “My goodness. How he got (designated for assignment) is shocking to every single person on this team, including coaches.”
Valencia raised his batting average for the season to .309 and, after an off day Monday, will face the Blue Jays on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game series in Toronto.
“You want to go in there swinging the bat well, but they have good pitching, they have a great team and they’re probably the hottest team in baseball right now,” Valencia said. “It’s going to be a challenge for us going in there. To win the series would be huge.”
The A’s are still in last place in the American League West, but they took three of four from the first-place Astros and cut their deficit to 10 games, the smallest it’s been since July 20.
“We’re resilient,” Valencia said. “There’s a lot of fight in here, and our pitching does a good job of keeping us in the game. It’s just a matter of us scoring some runs, stringing some hits, clutch hits, moving guys over and stuff like that. It’s huge taking 3 of 4 from them. We’re a pretty good team here.”