Sean Manaea outlasted Jose Urquidy in a classic pitchers' duel Thursday afternoon as the Oakland Athletics made it four of five in their showdown series against the visiting Houston Astros with a 3-1 victory.

Matt Olson provided the big blow with a go-ahead, two-run home run in the sixth inning for the A's.

Oakland (27-15) took a 3 1/2-game lead over the three-time defending American League West champs into the series and, with consecutive wins both to open and close the set, stretched it 6 1/2 with just 18 to play.

Houston (22-23), which arrived in Oakland with a four-game losing streak, has now lost eight of nine.

No-hit into the fifth inning and trailing 1-0 entering the bottom of the sixth, the A's took the lead for good when Olson followed a two-out walk to Ramon Laureano. The two-run homer, his 12th of the season, gave the A's a 2-1 advantage.

The Astros pulled Urquidy (0-1) at the end of the inning, having allowed two runs and two hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out one.

Oakland padded its lead against the Houston bullpen in the seventh when Mark Canha walked, stole second and scored on a Chad Pinder single.

Houston got the potential tying run to the plate in the eighth after a two-out walk, but Jake Diekman got Aledmys Diaz to ground out.

Oakland closer Liam Hendriks worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 12th save.

Manaea (4-2) coasted through the first seven innings, limiting the Astros to one run on two hits. He struck out four and did not walk a batter.

The game began as dueling perfect games by Manaea and Urquidy, with the two combining to set down the first 22 batters they faced.

Neither team had a hit until Canha singled off Urquidy to open the last of the fifth.

Houston finally got to Manaea when Josh Reddick doubled and Diaz singled with no outs in the sixth. Reddick scored the game's first run on Martin Maldonado's double-play grounder.

Olson's homer and doubles by Reddick and Canha were the game's only extra-base hits. Oakland out-hit Houston 5-2, with Canha finishing with two of the five hits by the A's.

--Field Level Media