A’s drop first game in Houston 9-2

Thomas Shea-USA TODAY SportsThe Houston Astros have struggled mightily in 2024 as a pitching unit, but thankfully today they played the A’s who don’t quite hit consistently. Ross Stripling turned in one of his better outings of the 2024 season thus far and gave the A’s a competitive chance to win but unfortunately for him, his offense couldn’t reciprocate the effort despite only being outhit 10-9.

While the 9-2 score may not reflect it, the A’s were in Mondays game for the first 7.5 innings in spite of timely negatives like a few errors and a pair of caught steals. A four-run ‘Stros explosion in the eighth, however, would put the nail in the coffin as the A’s have now lost four of their last…