Greinke, Gurriel impeccable against A's

Photo courtesy of Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

How do you rebound from a tough loss the night prior? An old-fashioned thumping.

After getting walked off by Oakland on Tuesday, Houston came back to drub the A's on Wednesday, accruing fifteen hits in an 8-1 win at the Coliseum.

For the second straight game, Houston got it going in the first inning. Facing Oakland's Frankie Montas, Altuve got the game started by hitting a round-tripper on the first pitch of the game.

Though the Astros would only score in three innings, they managed to put up a crooked number in each of them. After plating two in the first and experiencing a bit of a dry spell in the middle innings, the Astros exploded in the seventh and eighth for three runs each.

The common denominator? Yuli Gurriel, who had close to a perfect night at the plate. The first baseman went 4-5 at the dish, driving in four runs total, with two in the seventh and eighth innings each.

"He’s been awesome all year long, but he’s been clutching up," Baker said. "He’s been driving in runs. I don’t know where he is in the league leaders, but he has to be pretty close. He’s determined to show last year was a fluke and he’s worked hard."

Over his last 15 games, Gurriel is hitting .333 at the plate, with an OPS of .991 over that stretch.

"I felt really bad about my performance last year and I think even if I was fifty percent of what I was capable of doing, we would have maybe been able to reach the World Series," Gurriel said. "I’ve been focusing a lot on showing who I am."

The game was tight for the first six innings, but it was kept manageable thanks to the pitching of Zack Greinke. After a shaky last three starts, the veteran absolutely dominated Oakland for most of the night, with one key difference in his start on Wednesday -- he threw harder.

"We don’t understand it," Manager Dusty Baker said. "I don’t even know if he understands it. He was throwing harder. He shocked us up there with a couple 92s, 93s, but he was throwing great with great execution... He gave us everything we wanted and needed."

Indeed, Greinke was throwing harder, and Oakland hitters didn't seem to understand it. His fastball was touching 93 in the first inning -- a missile by Greinke standards -- and consistently stayed in the low nineties velocity to generate swings and misses.

Zack Greinke -- "I was trying to throw a little harder today, but then it ended up being a lot harder."

Greinke improved to a 5-1 record against Oakland in his career, with a 1.84 ERA. Greinke moved to 4-1 on the season in his starts.

The Astros moved to 25-18 with the win. They'll look to take the rubber match on Thursday with Luis Garcia on the mound, fresh off his first pitching win of the season. First pitch is scheduled for 2:30 PM CT.