HOUSTON _ The good news _ Ramon Laureano appears to be busting out of his slump. The bad news _ that was not enough against the Astros.
The A's will usually take holding the Astros high-powered offense to three runs. But their offense is not exactly at peak performance right now. For the fourth time in their past nine games, the A's offense was held to two runs or less in Friday's 3-2 loss to the Astros.
Laureano was the lone bright spot on offense. Struggling at the plate as he entered the night leading the league in strikeouts and a .176 batting average, Laureano collected a career-high four hits. The center fielder went 4 for 4 and drove in the A's only two runs of the night, including an RBI single off Astros closer Roberto Osuna in the ninth that brought home Mark Canha to bring the A's within a run of tying the game.
Frankie Montas got through five innings of work and allowed just two runs despite not having the type of command he displayed in his first start of the season. He walked three batters and surrendered a solo home run to Carlos Correa, but managed to keep the A's in the game. The right-hander found himself in a dire bases-loaded one-out jam in the fourth with Houston threatening to break it open already having scored in the inning to take a one-run lead. Facing the top of the lineup, Montas threw a hard fastball inside that George Springer grounded to Marcus Semien at short for an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to strand the bases.
The A's scattered seven hits throughout the night, all singles, except for Laureano's double to lead off the third. That same inning saw the A's biggest threat as Robbie Grossman and Stephen Piscotty both worked walks to load the bases with two outs for Khris Davis, but the slugger struck out swinging on a slider from Collin McHugh.
J.B. Wendelken RBI double allowed to Jose Altuve ended up being an important insurance run for the Astros as they snapped a two-game losing skid.
