Ks could rule the day when A's, Astros collide

OAKLAND, Calif. -- History, even if it is a small sample size, tells us that strikeouts should be plentiful when Oakland Athletics left-hander Sean Manaea and Houston Astros right-hander Lance McCullers Jr. square off Saturday afternoon at Oakland Coliseum in the second game of a three-game series.

The 23-year-old McCullers has 17 strikeouts in only 13 innings this season and fanned 10 Kansas City Royals on Sunday in a 5-4 Astros victory, getting a no-decision. For his career, McCullers has 20 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings against the A's.

Manaea had a career-high 10 strikeouts in 5 1/3 innings Sunday in an 8-1 loss to Texas and has 14 strikeouts in 11 1/3 innings this season. Manaea, 25, has 20 career strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings pitched against the Rangers.

Manaea's primary strikeout pitch this year has been his slider.

"Just gaining confidence in it, just knowing I can get swings and misses and ground ball outs with it," said Manaea, who is 0-1 with a 7.15 ERA in two starts this season, his second in the major leagues. "It just goes all back to trusting my stuff and knowing that I can get guys out and I just know I can pitch up here.

"The past couple starts I've just been going out and trusting my stuff. I've had some good results. I know the runs aren't what I want, but everything's still a work in progress. I'm not worried about all those things. I've just got to keep moving forward and continue with the positive things and building off that."

McCullers, who is 1-0 with a 2.77 ERA, relies heavily on his knuckle-curve, especially in strikeout situations. But he also has a mid-90s fastball.

"He's thrown a lot of strikes," Astros manager A.J. Hinch said before the Astros' 7-2 victory in the opener, their eighth straight win against Oakland. "He was really efficient his last outing with some low-pitch innings. That's really key for him. ... When he's right, it's strike one, and then they really do have to worry about the breaking ball."

Manaea is 0-1 with a 1.69 ERA in four career starts vs. Texas. McCullers is 1-1 with a 3.45 ERA in three career starts against the A's.

Houston right fielder Josh Reddick faced the A's on Friday night for the first time since they traded him to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Aug. 1, along with left-hander Rich Hill, for pitchers Jharel Cotton, Frankie Montas and Grant Holmes.

The left-handed hitting Reddick, who signed a four-year, $52 million free-agent contract with Houston on Nov. 23, has started nine of the Astros' first 11 games and appeared in all 11. He hit in the middle of Oakland's order but has hit second, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth for Houston.

"It's a special team," Reddick said of the Astros. "It's a really good group of guys, great lineup. From being a middle of the order (hitter) here for so long, it's definitely been a transition for me to be able to jump up and down this lineup, but you don't really complain about it because your lineup is so special here and anything can happen.

"When you look at our lineup card you got guys one through nine who can do a whole lot of damage. It's just like hitting three, four or five in any other lineup."

Reddick went 0-for-5 on Friday night but lined out three times.