HOUSTON _ The A's inability to keep starting pitchers healthy is reaching the realm of farce.
Sean Manaea wasn't feeling the humor as he walked off the field in the fourth inning of what would be a 6-0 loss to the Astros on Monday night, but the sense of the comedic was there nevertheless.
The A's starting pitchers have lost 612 days on the disabled list this season, a simply ludicrous amount of time to be surrendered to injuries. Manaea isn't likely to wind up on the disabled list, his injury being diagnosed as a right rhomboid strain. He basically has a sore back and is listed as day-to-day.
More than that, the roster expands to 40 players on Thursday, so Oakland is just hours away from being able to bring up as much help as it needs.
And Manaea likely didn't see any humor in taking the loss on the road, where he is 0-7 this year. He allowed just one infield hit, but back-to-back errors in the second inning by rookie third baseman Ryon Healy loaded the bases.
Manaea chose that moment to issue his only two walks of the evening, and the resulting 2-0 Houston lead was more than the A's offense could carve into.
No part of the A's has been more in flux than the starting rotation, and with the injury to Manaea the rotation roulette may not yet be over.
Manager Bob Melvin said no decision has been made on what to do with the rotation for the final month of the season, but with Oakland currently having three relievers _ Andrew Triggs, Zach Neal and Ross Detwiler _ filling in even before Manaea came up hurting, there are minor league starters the club could bring up.
Of them, one who immediately piqued Melvin's interest was Jharel Cotton, who came within one out of a perfect game in his second start for Triple-A Nashville after the A's acquired him in the trade of Josh Reddick and Rich Hill. Since joining the Sounds, Cotton is 3-1 with a 3.31 ERA.
The manager also mentioned Raul Alcantara, who is 4-0 with a 0.89 in seven starts for Nashville after being promoted from Double-A, and Daniel Mengden, who has struggled in nine starts with the A's, going 1-5 with a 5.73 ERA, but who is 8-2 with a 1.67 ERA with the Sounds.
The Astros would go on to add four more runs against reliever Chris Smith, who started well by retiring the first five men he faced. Jose Altuve brought all that to an end in the fifth with a solo homer and Smith was out of the game after loading the bases with no one out in the sixth.
Reliever J.W. Wendelken gave up a two-run single to Alex Bregman and a run-scoring hit by Carlos Correa as the Astros kept building on their lead.
The A's got just four hits, one each in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but the A's were 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position en route to seeing the Oakland record fall to 57-74. The A's have lost nine shutouts.
