Clan-Members » a match point, en route to edging No. 18 John Isner

HOUSTON -- Rich Hill has returned to form after a stint on the disabled list, and it helped the Oakland Athletics to a much-needed win Thursday night.Yonder Alonso doubled and drove in two runs and Hill tied a season-high with 10 strikeouts in six solid innings to give the Athletics the 3-1 victory over the Houston Astros.The win snapped Oaklands two-game skid and was just its second victory in eight games.Weve seen quite a few of these games from him this year and to come back so effective after a long layoff and an injury is really impressive, manager Bob Melvin said. Weve gotten him back to 100 pitches or so and hes pitching in the same fashion he did before he left.Hill (9-3) allowed three hits and one run to extend his winning streak to six games in his second start since coming off the disabled list on Saturday. Hill was out for a little over a month with a strained left groin.He said he feels like hes back to where he was before his injury.Last outing went really well and I think this outing went well, he said. Every single time you get to put the uniform on at this level and go out there you have to take advantage of it.Manager A.J. Hinch said Hill kept Houston off-balance by mixing his pitches well.Early, it was all about the breaking ball. Late, it was all about his fastball, he said. So he changed his game plan a little bit back and forth and we had no way to solve it. He had a little bit of everything working. Regardless of our tendency to strike out, Rich Hill did a really good job.Ryan Madson pitched a perfect ninth for his 17th save.The Athletics trailed by one in the second when Danny Valencia and Khris Davis singled before Stephen Vogt drew a walk to load the bases with no outs. The Athletics tied it when Marcus Semien grounded into a double play that allowed Valencia to score.Alonso followed with his double to put Oakland up 2-1. He gave the Athletics an insurance run with an infield RBI single with two outs in the ninth.Houstons Doug Fister (8-6) yielded three hits and two runs in eight innings for his third straight loss after winning his previous seven decisions.George Springer extended his hitting streak to eight games with a leadoff triple that landed on Tals Hill in center field. Houston took a 1-0 lead when he scored on a groundout by Marwin Gonzalez.Luis Valbuena singled with one out in the second before Hill settled in, retiring the next 10. Houston didnt have another baserunner until a single by Jake Marisnick with two outs in the fifth inning. Hill struck out Jason Castro to end that inning before striking out three with two walks in the sixth to end his night.Josh Reddick reached on an error by shortstop Carlos Correa to start the ninth before Houston intentionally walked Vogt with two outs. Semien drew a walk after that to load the bases before Alonsos fly ball dropped in front of Correa to allow Reddick to score.COCOS APOLOGYCoco Crisp was ejected after tossing his bat in the direction of home plate umpire D.J. Reyburn after striking out for the third out of the fifth inning. After the game, Crisp apologized for his behavior and said he didnt mean for the bat to end up so close to Reyburn.I want to apologize for getting too close to him, Crisp said. That was pretty bad. Just also to let him know that I didnt want it to come out where it was going to hit him.Crisp went 0 for 3 to snap a 12-game hitting streak, which was the longest active streak in the majors.UP NEXTAthletics: Daniel Mengden (1-4, 3.48) will start for Oakland on Friday. The rookie, who has 31 strikeouts combined in his first five career starts, looks to bounce back after allowing seven hits and four runs in 5 1/3 innings of a 6-3 loss to Pittsburgh on Sunday.Astros: Collin McHugh (5-6, 4.50) is scheduled to start for Houston on Friday. McHugh is looking for his first win since May 30, after going 0-2 in his last six starts. Hydro Flask Standard Mouth Sports Cap . -- Its been a long road back for Sean Bergenheim. Hydro Flask Coffee Cup . 8 Iowa State on Saturday, sending the Cyclones to their third consecutive loss. The Longhorns (14-4, 3-2) got their biggest win of the season with their third in the row in the Big 12. http://www.hydroflaskcoffeesale.com/hydro-flask-kids/12-oz-kids-wide-mouth.html . The head of USA Boxing came out swinging Tuesday with an open letter to Tyson -- a former Olympic hopeful himself -- that accuses the former heavyweight champion of trying to poach fighters who might be candidates for the U. Hydro Flask 40 Oz Wide Mouth . On Saturday night, the normally free throw-challenged centre did just that. Howard scored 18 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, including 13 of 19 free throws in a 2 1/2-minute stretch, and the Houston Rockets beat the Denver Nuggets 122-111. Hydro Flask Coffee 12 Oz . It just didnt show when he hit the ice. Berra made 42 saves and Kris Russell scored at 1:32 of overtime, lifting the Calgary Flames to a 3-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday night. LONDON -- Serena Williams has won so many Grand Slam matches that shes lost count.Then again, as she noted Sunday, its her losses that get a lot more attention nowadays.Looking much more ready for Week 2 at Wimbledon than she did in her previous outing, Williams joined Martina Navratilova as the only women with 300 victories at major tournaments in the Open era by overwhelming Annika Beck 6-3, 6-0 in 51 minutes to get to the fourth round.Every time I step out on the court, if I dont win, its major national news, Williams said a day after her counterpart in the mens draw, No. 1 and defending champion Novak Djokovic, was ousted. But if I do win, its just like a small tag in the corner.Pushed to three sets her last time out, Williams was about as dominant as can be against her 43rd-ranked German opponent. Nearly perfect, even.Williams won the last 17 points she served. She won 24 of the last 28 points overall. She accumulated 25 winners to two for Beck.Afterward, the six-time Wimbledon champion was asked whether she knew she had reached a milestone by getting her 300th Grand Slam match win, breaking a tie with Chris Evert for second place behind Navratilovas total of 306.No. Was it? Cool. Oh, nice, the 34-year-old American said with a laugh. I had no idea. Thats awesome, right? Thats good, right?Shes now 300-42, an .877 winning percentage, and will go for No. 301 right away: All 16 mens and womens fourth-round matches are scheduled for Monday, when Williams faces two-time major champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.Yes, thanks to sun on Sunday, the tournament is all caught up after persistent rain left a backlog of matches. This was only the fourth time since The Championships, as theyre called around these parts, began 139 years ago that matches were played on the middle Sunday.On the other three occasions -- 1991, 1997, 2004 -- fans lined up overnight to buy tickets that normally are so difficult, and expensive, to come by, creating a loud festival of flag-waving, face-painted folks thrilled to be on-site for once. This time, seats could only be purchased online, and there was a far-less-vibrant vibe than in the past on what was known as Peoples Sunday.I thought it would feel really different, Williams said, asked to compare this day with an averagee one at the grass-court Grand Slam, but it didnt feel really different.ddddddddddddIf anything, this middle Sunday was oddly subdued. Silent, even. Arenas were filled with rows and rows of unclaimed green chairs. Spectators applauded politely, if at all. Walkways around the grounds were easy to traverse.Strange feeling, a little bit, said No. 7 Richard Gasquet, who helped give France four men in the round of 16 at Wimbledon for the first time since 1929, because ... I dont see many people around.His next opponent is another member of that rare quartet, No. 12 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who erased a two-set deficit, then saved a match point, en route to edging No. 18 John Isner of the United States 19-17 in a fifth set that lasted more than 2 hours all by itself.Its good to be alive, said Tsonga, now 6-0 in five-setters at the All England Club.They played three sets before being halted because of darkness Saturday night and finished Sunday.In other mens matches, No. 32 Lucas Pouille of France got past 2009 U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro 6-7 (4), 7-6 (6), 7-5, 6-1; 2010 Wimbledon runner-up Tomas Berdych defeated 19-year-old Alexander Zverev 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; No. 15 Nick Kyrgios eliminated No. 22 Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-4 to set up a showdown against his pal Andy Murray, who is seeded No. 2 and won the 2013 title; and Jiri Vesely defeated No. 31 Joao Sousa 6-2, 6-2, 7-5.The 13th-seeded Kuznetsova advanced with a 6-7 (1), 6-2, 8-6 victory over No. 18 Sloane Stephens. Other womens winners included No. 21 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova. The woman who ended Williams bid for a calendar-year Grand Slam in the U.S. Open semifinals last September, Roberta Vinci, failed to put up much of a challenge in a 6-3, 6-4 loss to No. 27 CoCo Vandeweghe.Vandeweghe won 24 of 28 first-serve points and 14 of 17 points when she went to the net, improving to 11-1 on grass this season.Past month or almost two months, said Vandeweghe, a 2015 Wimbledon quarterfinalist, Ive been doing a good job of rising to the occasion.---Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich ' ' '