A’s bats silent in 3-0 loss to Astros
Aaron Brooks with a head-turning start though
The A’s dropped their third straight game to the rival Astros, falling to their division rival by a final of 3-0 on a night the bats could only muster two hits.
Right-hander Aaron Brooks, only just recalled today, made the start for the A’s in tonight’s contest. This is Brooks’ third different stint with the club, not something you see everyday in today’s game. He’s been putting up solid numbers for Vegas and the club needs starters so the club tapped him for tonight.
He got off to a pretty tough start in his season debut. After the A’s went down 1-2-3 in the top of the first, Houston scored twice in the bottom half, courtesy of an RBI double and sac fly. Not an especially encouraging sign but he did finish the inning striking out Jeremy Peña.
On the mound for Houston was Framber Valdez. The left-hander has been having a good season for the club up to this point but tonight he took it up a notch. The Athletics recorded their first hit in the fourth inning, a single off the bat of JD Davis. The only other baserunnner for the team in the first seven innings was from a Max Schuemann walk, and he was immediately wiped out on a double play. They had also struck out eight times and looked utterly helpless against Valdez.
Houston added an insurance run in the fourth off another RBI sac fly but other than that Brooks really settled into the game after a tough first inning. The 34-year old Brooks pitched seven full innings, collecting five strikeouts with just one walk allowed. He gave the A’s everything they wanted and then more, giving most of the bullpen a break. He might have earned himself 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 all the way 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 little two-out rally. It fizzled out though as Tyler Nevin grounded out to third to end the threat. Thankfully that would be Valdez’s last frame today. The A’s would need to come back against the Houston bullpen if they wanted to win.
It would just be too much to overcome tonight. Finally into the Houston bullpen, a double play ended the eighth inning, then the A’s brought the game-tying run to the plate. And again, a double play would end the inning, and this time also the game.
That’s three straight losses to the Astros and nine of their last 11 games. It’s been a tough stretch to say the least. That six-game winning streak feels ages ago. The A’s are now 19-26 after being at .500 less than two weeks ago.
The team can salvage at least one win tomorrow afternoon in the series finale. They’ll be hoping to avoid the 4-game sweep before heading to Kansas City. Oakland will be throwing right-hander Joey Estes out there in the finals for his second start of the season for the A’s. He’ll be opposed by fellow right-hander Cristian Javier.