Remember when the Athletics were a .500 team? It wasn’t that long ago, May 4 to be exact, after a win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Now it’s a distant memory, and one that isn’t likely to be reached again in 2024. The Athletics were shut down by Framber Valdez and Seth Martinez Wednesday night, losing 3-0 at Minute Maid Park.
The A’s lost again despite an encouraging start from veteran right-hander Aaron Brooks, who at the very least earned himself another start.
Brooks gave up seven hits and three earned runs in seven innings with a walk and five strikeouts. As was the case in his eight Triple-A starts in Las Vegas, Brooks (0-1) did not allow a home run and 60 of his 84 pitches were strikes.
It’s the fourth consecutive loss for the A’s, sixth in the last seventh game and ninth in their last 11. The Athletics have fallen to 19-26, their starting pitching rotation is in shambles and they’ve scored one run in the last 19 innings against an American League West rival that looked as if it rediscovered itself after a rough start and improved to 18-25.
Valdez (3-1), who owns a 104-pitch shutout win over the A’s last season, gave up just two hits with two walks and eight strikeouts in seven innings before giving way to Martinez for a two-inning save, his first of the season.
The A’s got the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth when Brent Rooker reached on an error by Alex Bregman and Tyler Soderstrom walked. The rally ended when Shea Langeliers grounded into a double play for the final outs.
Houston scored its first run six pitches into the game when Kyle Tucker doubled to right, with Jose Altuve, who had singled, coming home on a a relay error by Zack Gelof. Alex Bregman added a sacrifice fly in the inning, with Mauricio Dubon adding another sac fly in the fourth.
Brooks, who provided Oakland’s first quality start in more than a week, took the scenic route to the mound.
A Kansas City Royals ninth-round draft pick in 2011, Brooks eventually made the Royals and was traded to the A’s on July 28, 2015 along with Sean Manaea in exchange for Ben Zobrist. The A’s shipped him to the Chicago Cubs before the start of the 2016 season only to return to Oakland in 2018 for cash considerations.
After being designated for assignment, the Baltimore Orioles acquired him as a waiver claim. Brooks, 34, pitched in Korea in 2020-21 and spent time with the St. Louis and San Diego organizations before accepting a minor league deal with the A’s last February.
The A’s hope to prevent a sweep in Houston Thursday night with Joey Estes (1-0) opposing Cristian Javier (2-1).