Fast start, faster meltdown by the A's: 7th consecutive loss to Houston in 2023

Everything looked great for the Oakland Athletics on Thursday. For an inning, at least. For five, if you want to be supremely positive. After half of yesterday's game was over, though, the Astros got the better of the A's and flipped an 0-1 into a 2-1 lead that Houston eventually turned into the final 3-1 win over Oakland.

The A's have faced the Astros eight time this season, and they have lost all eight meetings with three more in the schedule from Friday through Sunday.

Oakland is now 27-72, on the verge of projecting to finish the season with a worse record than the dreadful early-aughts Detroit Tigers, while the A's could only bring fewer than 5,000 souls to the Oakland Coliseum to enjoy their loss. Ugly overall.

Hogan Harris took the mound for the A's and he was kinda good, definitely not great. The rookie allowed a couple of runs on four hits while striking six and not conceding a single walk, something he must have appreciated after struggling with his command earlier this season.

Oakland couldn't have had a better start to Thursday's matchup. Tony Kemp walked. Seth Brown followed two outs with a double scoring Kemp, and the A's were already leading the game just minute into the affair.

Everything went downhill from that moment on, though.

The match was rather uneventful (what they call pitcher-dominated to apply some makeup to it...) for the next four innings, but that changed in the sixth frame as Houston decided enough was enough and tagged Harris hard to take the lead and never again look back to their earlier woes on the day.

Mauricio Dubon singled. Jeremy Peña did the same and advanced his teammate. Finally, Kyle Tucker doubled scoring both Dubon and Peña and putting the Astros ahead.

Fellow rookie Freddy Tarnok replaced Harris to start the seventh inning and although he got to pitch a clean frame then and there, he would then allow a one-run homer to center field to superstar Astro Alex Bregman allowing Houston to build a two-run pad that Oakland couldn't even cut in half.

Tyler Soderstrom and Zack Gelof, the most promising players in the A's squad these days, went 1-for-8 at the plate.

Ryan Noda hit the 10-day IL with a broken jaw and is expected to miss the next three weeks--that is, if he ever returns to the A's as he could very well get traded away.

Ramon Laureano keeps getting reps in Las Vegas, probably acclimating to the A's new location a few years from now.

Cheer up, A's fam, at least the weekend is already here.

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