Houston (54-54) earned their grittiest win of the 2014 season on Wednesday afternoon at Minute Maid Park.

Needing nothing more than a long outing from starter Scott Feldman (7-5, 4.51), disaster struck early. Feldman suffered an abdominal strain after lasting just 1/3 of an inning. The injury forced Houston's heavily-fatigued bullpen to take over early on, something they did not need.

Houston surrendered 4 runs in the first and the overwhelming sentiment was among the home fans was, "here we go again". However, Manager Bo Porter used 7 pitchers to get the job done and the offense chipped away at the deficit (through 9 hits and 10 walks).

Eventually, a 2-run Alex Presley homer to left put Houston in front in the 6th inning and the bullpen finished the job, with the Astros winning 6-4 to take 2 of 3 from Oakland.

Raul Valdes (3-4, 3.07) earned the win pitching a perfect 1.1 innings with one strikeout and Jesse Crain (1-1, 1.44) hurled a 1-2-3 ninth to notch his 29th Save.

The biggest performance on the mound, however, was turned in by lefty Darin Downs (2-1, 4.36). Downs came into a tenuous situation in the 8th. After Chad Qualls (4-3, 4.24) allowed a single and a walk to open the inning, Downs held Houston's shaky 5-4 lead by striking out the next 3 batters to retire the A's.

Houston will host the AL East-leading Toronto Blue Jays (61-48) in the first 4 on Thursday night. Alex White (2-4, 2.90) will face Brandon Morrow (7-8, 4.22) to kickoff the weekend series and close the month of July.

Probable Starters for the rest of the series:

Friday: Jerome Williams (10-5, 3.37) vs Cole Hamels (5-9, 4.69)

Saturday: Jarred Cosart (7-5, 3.91) vs Shelby Miller (5-10, 5.07)

Sunday: Brett Oberholtzer (7-8, 4.36) vs Marcus Stroman (8-5, 3.22)