The A’s lost their third straight game to their rival Astros, falling to their division rival by a final 3-0 on a night when the Bats could only muster two hits.
Right-hander Aaron Brooks, just retired today, started for the A’s in tonight’s game. This is Brooks’ third different spell with the club, something you don’t see every day in today’s game. He has been putting up solid numbers for Las Vegas and the club needs starters, which is why he picked him for tonight.
He had a pretty rough start in his season debut. After the A’s trailed 1-2-3 in the top of the first, Houston scored twice in the bottom half, courtesy of an RBI double and a sacrifice fly. It’s not a particularly encouraging sign, but he ended the inning by striking out Jeremy Peña.
On Houston’s mound was Framber Valdez. The left-hander has been having a good season with the club up to this point but tonight he went one step further. The A’s recorded his first hit in the fourth inning, a single off the bat of JD Davis. The team’s only other baserunner in the first seven innings came on a walk by Max Schuemann, and he was immediately thrown out into a double play. They had also struck out eight times and looked completely helpless against Valdez.
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Houston added an insurance run in the fourth with another RBI sacrifice fly, but other than that, Brooks settled into the game after a rough first inning. Brooks, 34, pitched seven full innings, recording five strikeouts with just one walk allowed. He gave the A’s everything they wanted and more, giving most of the bullpen a break. He could have earned another start after tonight. Veteran TJ McFarland and rookie Tyler Ferguson teamed up to pitch a scoreless eighth inning, the only other pitchers used tonight.
It took until the seventh inning for the A’s to get another hit. The A’s got a two-out single from catcher Shea Langeliers followed by a walk from Zack Gelof, threatening Valdez for the first time with a small two-out comeback. However, it failed when Tyler Nevin hit a ground ball to third to end the threat. Luckily, that would be Valdez’s last frame today. The A’s would need to come back against Houston’s bullpen if they wanted to win.
It would be too much to overcome tonight. Finally, in the Houston bullpen, a double play ended the eighth inning, and then the A’s brought home the game-tying run. And again, a double play would end the inning, and this time the game as well.
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There are three consecutive losses to the Astros and nine of their last 11 games. It has been a difficult stretch, to say the least. That six-game winning streak feels like a long time ago. The A’s are now 19-26 after being at .500 less than two weeks ago.
The team can get at least one win tomorrow afternoon in the series finale. They will hope to avoid a 4-game sweep before heading to Kansas City. Oakland will launch right-hander Joey Estes in the finale for his second start of the season for the A’s. He will face fellow right-hander Cristian Javier.
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