Right-hander Trevor Cahill gave up only an infield single over seven innings Saturday afternoon, and the Oakland Athletics completed a 10-game climb into first place in the American League West with a 7-1 victory over the Houston Astros in Oakland, Calif.
With the win, the A’s are now tied for first in the division with the defending champions.
Khris Davis doubled twice and drove in two runs as the A’s knocked out Houston left-hander Dallas Keuchel in the sixth inning en route to their second straight win against the Astros in the three-game series.
The A’s, who trailed the Astros by 10 games on July 10, moved into at least a tie for first place in the AL West in any month after April for the first time since Aug. 25, 2014.
The Astros, meanwhile, had held a solo lead in the division since June 14. Cahill (5-2) faced 22 batters and got 21 outs, including a double play after he issued his only walk of the game to Alex Bregman in the seventh inning. The lone hit came on a grounder up the middle by Yuli Gurriel with one out in the second. A’s shortstop Marcus Semien ranged far to his left to get to the ball, but had it kick off his glove. The play was ruled a hit.
Cahill struck out seven in his seven innings. Any controversy over the official scoring on Gurriel’s ball was sidestepped when Tony Kemp hit a one-out solo home run off the A’s third pitcher, Yusmeiro Petit, in the ninth inning, giving the Astros a second hit.
The homer was Kemp’s fifth of the season. Davis gave Cahill an immediate cushion with a two-run double in the first inning after Semien and Jed Lowrie singled.
Oakland busted the game open in the sixth with four doubles, including three in succession by Davis, Matt Olson and Stephen Piscotty. The latter two each drove in a run. Josh Phegley capped the three-run inning with a two-out RBI double that plated Piscotty.
Keuchel (9-10) didn’t survive the inning, pulled after giving up five runs and nine hits in 5 2/3 innings. He walked one and struck out four. Keuchel had been 5-1 with a 1.88 ERA in his previous eight starts. Phegley completed a three-RBI day and the A’s scoring with a two-run double with two outs in the eighth. Phegley, Davis, Olson and Piscotty had two doubles apiece for the A’s, who rallied late to beat the Astros 4-3 in 10 innings in the series opener on Friday night. The Astros lost for the seventh time in their last eight games. The A’s out-hit the Astros 11-2.

Cards move ahead for 2nd NL wild card
Miles Mikolas pitched six effective innings and won his fifth straight decision as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the visiting Milwaukee Brewers 7-2 Saturday night at Busch Stadium.
The latest solid showing by Mikolas helped the Cardinals win for the 14th time in 17 games. St. Louis also improved to 21-10 since interim manager Mike Shildt replaced Mike Matheny on July 15 and inched ahead of Milwaukee for the second wild-card spot. Mikolas (13-3) improved to 5-0 in his last nine starts since a 5-1 loss to Atlanta on June 29 by allowing one run on five hits. He struck out seven without a walk and threw 62 of 91 pitches for strikes.
The right-hander allowed two runs or less for the ninth time in his last 11 starts. He also became the first Cardinals pitcher to reach 13 wins in the team’s first 123 games in his first season with the club since Kyle Lohse in 2008. Mikolas allowed a solo homer to Travis Shaw to lead off the second but little else. His most significant trouble occurred in the sixth, when the Brewers had runners at second and third following a double by Lorenzo Cain and a single to Jesus Aguilar, who took second on a throwing error by right fielder Tyler O’Neill.