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OAKLAND, Calif. - Two days after homering in the eighth inning to break up Yu Darvishs no-hitter, Houstons Carlos Corporan came up with another timely late hit. Just like that, the Astros have a winning streak and their first series win in nearly two months. Corporan hit an RBI double off reliever Sean Doolittle in the 11th inning to drive in Jose Altuve, lifting Houston to a 2-1 win over the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday. "I was ready for the fastball and he threw it," Corporan said. "As soon as I hit it I thought its either a homer or a double and were going to score." Corporans hit came after Oakland nearly won the game in the bottom of the 10th when Houston left fielder Robbie Grossman made a leaping grab of Chris Youngs deep fly at the fence. Its the first time the Astros have had back-to-back wins since June 15-16 when they took three of four from the Chicago White Sox. Thats also the last time Houston won a series. "That was a big hit by Corporan," Astros manager Bo Porter said. "Hes actually got big hits all year. You look at the year (catcher Jason) Castros having, a lot of that credit goes to Corporan being a great backup and giving him opportunities to take days off." Jose Altuve singled with one out Doolittle (3-4) and was headed for third on Corporans double to left-centre when Young bobbled the ball. Altuve alertly rounded third and scored the tiebreaking run while Corporan was caught in a rundown between second and third. Corporan had entered the game as a defensive replacement in the bottom of the ninth. "Weve been playing pretty good," Corporan said. "Things are going our way now. Its our turn." Chris Carter homered and Jonathan Villar added two hits for the Astros. Houston has won the first two games of this series after dropping 11 of the first 12 between the two division rivals. Lucas Harrell (6-13) pitched one inning for the win while Josh Fields earned his second save. Yoenis Cespedes singled and scored Oaklands run. The As have dropped nine of 13 and fell two games behind first-place Texas in the West. "It just seemed like it was frustrating from the beginning and got more frustrating as the game went on," said As manager Bob Melvin, who was ejected in the eighth inning after arguing a close play at third base. "You have to try and put that away and keep your wits about you and not get frustrated." Houston won despite Oakland getting the tying run on base in the bottom of the 11th. Eric Sogard hit a leadoff double but Fields struck out Alberto Callaspo, Jed Lowrie and Josh Reddick to end it. Carter, the former As first baseman, homered off As starter Jarrod Parker leading off the seventh. Its Carters third in his last five games. Brandon Mosss RBI double in the seventh off Houston reliever Phil Humber tied it. Both starting pitchers were stellar but left with no decision. Houstons Jarred Cosart, the first pitcher in franchise history to begin his career with five consecutive starts of five-plus innings while allowing two or fewer runs, kept the As silent early. He allowed only one runner past first base through six innings and didnt give up a fly ball out until Josh Donaldsons sinking liner to centre leading off the fifth. The Astros also backed him with solid defence. Houston turned a double play to end the third, and centre fielder Brandon Barnes made a running catch near the wall to rob Seth Smith of extra bases in the sixth. Parker pitched a career-best 8 1-3 innings for Oakland and had six strikeouts. The right-hander faced just two over the minimum through the fifth and made his only mistake came in the seventh when he gave up Carters team-leading 22nd home run of the season. Melvin was ejected in the eighth after arguing a call by third base umpire Doug Eddings. Sogard doubled leading off the inning but was thrown out on a close play trying to advance on Nate Freimans deep fly to centre. Melvin scampered out of the dugout to dispute the call before getting tossed. NOTES: Castros single in the ninth extended his hitting streak to a career-best 12 games. ... Carters home run was his first against his former club. He was traded to Houston in the off-season as part of Oaklands deal to acquire Lowrie. ... As C John Jaso still has not been cleared to resume baseball activities but the team is hopeful he can return this season. Jaso met with a concussion specialist in Pittsburgh earlier this week. ... CF Coco Crisp was held out of the lineup after getting a cortisone injection in his wrist on Tuesday. ... The Astros called up INF Marwin Gonzalez from Triple-A Oklahoma City and optioned RHP Jorge DeLeon down. ... Houston traded minor league LHP Travis Blackley to Texas in exchange for a player to be named later and cash considerations. .com) - Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll knows about life in the NFL from other stints around the league. . Bryant, who signed a five-year, $34 million contract as a free agent with Cleveland in March, reported symptoms on Monday morning, a team spokesman said. . - Dominika Cibulkova erased three match points in the second set Wednesday and beat Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the quarterfinals of the Sony Open. .The result meant Juventus will spend the winter break three points clear of Roma after the league leader beat Cagliari 3-1 on Thursday.Milan remained seventh ahead of the rest of the weekends fixtures, but was provisionally two points behind third-place Napoli in their duel for the final Champions League spot. . But back-up Peter Budaj has put up two wins and an overtime loss while starting three games in four nights since Price went down with a suspected groin injury.Columbus, OH (SportsNetwork.com) - Sam Thompson and DAngelo Russell each had 15 points as No. 12 Ohio State posted an 87-71 win over Morehead State at Value City Arena. Despite struggling on the defensive end for much of the game, Ohio State (8-1) still managed to record a third straight lopsided victory since falling to No. 4 Louisville on Dec. 2 behind a sharp shooting display. Thompson and Amir Williams both finished 5-of-6 from the field and the Buckeyes went 56.6 percent overall as a team. There are some things weve got to work on but it was a good win, said Thompson. (Morehead State) was a very good team and were happy to get out of here with another win. The Eagles (4-8) shot 55.3 percent, with Corban Collins draining 6-of-7 attempts from 3-point range in a 22-point effort, but committed 21 turnovers in their fourth straight loss. Williams ended with 12 points and nine rebounds, with JaeSean Tate also tallying 12 points for Ohio State. The Buckeyes opened the game on a 12-2 run and never trailed at any stage, though Morehead State stayed within striking distance for much of the first half due to Collins, who knocked down 4-of-5 tries from beyond the arc for the period. Two of those makes came during a 10-4 spurt that brought the Eagles within 18-15 just over seven minutes in. Another Collins three had Ohio State up just 23-20 before the Buckeyes put together a 10-2 sequence to go ahead by double digits with five minutes remaining in the half.dddddddddddd A 12-2 flurry, during which Russell netted seven points, to close out the period sent Ohio State into the locker room owning a comfortable 47-28 lead. The Eagles were able to cut down a 20-point differential down to 14 with 12 minutes left, with two more Collins 3-pointers fueling an 8-2 push that pulled Morehead within 62-48. Ohio State then clamped down defensively, forcing three turnovers and several missed shots while putting the Eagles away via an 8-2 run of its own. Back-to-back dunks by Thompson and Russell finished off the stretch, which put the Buckeyes up by a 70-50 count with seven minutes to go. I was proud of our guys for infiltrating and putting them on their heels the second half, said Morehead State head coach Sean Woods. We had a few turnovers here and there, but theyre more athletic than we are and they beat us on the boards. The rebounding and the turnovers were the game. Game Notes The game was Ohio States Thad Mattas 500th as a head coach ... The Buckeyes have now won 56 straight home games -- all by double digits -- against unranked non-conference opponents ... Ohio State improved to 15-0 all-time against members of the Ohio Valley Conference, with four of those wins coming against Morehead State ... Lyonell Gaines had 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting for the Eagles. ' ' '
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