OAKLAND, Calif. _ Stephen Vogt could be thankful for two things in the wake of being designated for assignment on Thursday. He didn't have to catch totally out-of-sync Jesse Hahn, and he didn't have to suffer through yet another A's defeat at the hands of the Houston Astros.
There already was a bit of a pall at the Coliseum following the dispiriting pregame news regarding Vogt, immensely popular both with his teammates and A's fans. Then the Astros, with a big assist from the erratic Hahn, dropped an even more depressing anvil. They scored 10 runs in the first two innings, including an 8-spot in the second, en route to a 12-9 victory. A six-run eighth inning made things mildly interesting, but Oakland never came close to getting the tying run to the plate.
Houston's win, its major league-best 50th in just 74 games, completed a four-game sweep of the A's, who had started their eight-game homestand so grandly with a four-game sweep of the New York Yankees. It was the Astros' 10th straight win over Oakland at the Coliseum, and 15th in the last 16 meetings overall.
As if the day needed any more salt in the wound for Oakland, another former popular A's player, Josh Reddick, homered against his former team for the first time. Adding a double and a triple, Reddick was just a single shy of hitting for the cycle.
The game started ominously for Hahn (3-5) when he threw a high-and-tight pitch to Houston leadoff man George Springer and hit him. Springer had to leave the game with a hand contusion, and Hahn subsequently walked Reddick and Carlos Correa to load the bases. He gave up back-to-back sacrifice flies to Carlos Beltran and Evan Gattis, but got out of the first without any further damage despite throwing 19 balls and just six strikes in the inning.
But the roof quickly caved in for the right-hander in the second inning. Houston sent 11 men to the plate. Jake Marisnick, who had replaced Springer, whacked a three-run homer to left-center to make it 5-0, Gattis drove in a pair of runs with a two-run single and Marwin Gonzalez's three-run blast to right field made it a full-fledged laugher at that point.
"It just wasn't there for him today," said manager Bob Melvin of Hahn. "Velocity wasn't there, command wasn't there, and it was just one of those days where you don't want to say 'dead arm,' but there wasn't anything coming out."
Hahn said he couldn't find his rhythm warming up in the bullpen but thought he could work through it. When he hit Springer to start the game, however, that notion went awry.
"As a pitcher, those are things that usually happen in a game and normally you don't think too much of it," he said. "Obviously, you don't want to hit a guy and you feel bad sometimes when you do. For some reason, with that one, I don't want to say it rattled me, but I felt bad in a way. I sent best wishes to him after I came out. But for me, I think it affected my game, which is coming inside on righties with my sinker. I kind of babied it after that, and I started spiking at lot. It just wasn't good."
Hahn threw 58 pitches in the two innings and nine of the 10 runs scored against him were earned. He gave up six hits, walked three and didn't strike out a batter. Rookie David Paulino (2-0) got the victory for Houston, pitching the first 51/3 innings and allowing three earned runs.
About the only good news for the A's was Bruce Maxwell, who was recalled from Triple-A Nashville to take Vogt's place on the 25-man roster. Maxwell went 3 for 4, which included an RBI double. Matt Olson, also called up to take the place of third baseman Matt Chapman, went 2 for 3. That, plus Josh Smith's three innings of shutout pitching, provided some consolation for Melvin.
"The last thing you want to see when you're down 10-0 is guys just cashing it in and that wasn't the case," the manager said. "These guys all have something to play for. They're playing for jobs, and future starting jobs. To get there for their first game and make an impact when we were down like we were, it's good to see."
