HOUSTON — Hunter Brown and the Houston Astros held the Oakland Athletics hitless until Ryan Noda‘s one-out single in the ninth inning of a 6-2 victory Wednesday night that sent the A’s to their first consecutive 100-loss seasons since the 1960s.
Brown pitched five innings, and Rafael Montero, Hector Neris and Bryan Abreu followed with a perfect inning each as American League West-leading Houston retired 11 straight batters.
Ryan Pressly retired Tony Kemp on a grounder leading off the ninth, then walked Zack Gelof. Noda grounded a changeup past Pressly and into center field for a single.
Seth Brown‘s single and Shea Langeliers‘ sacrifice fly drove in runs before Pressly finished the two-hitter by throwing a called third strike past Brent Rooker.
Oakland was held to two hits or fewer for the eighth time.
Yordan Alvarez hit a three-run homer and Alex Bregman and Kyle Tucker had solo shots for the Astros, who maintained a one-game lead over second-place Texas, with Seattle another half-game back. Tucker’s home run was the 100th of his big league career.
Brown (11-11) struck out seven in five innings, walked two and hit a batter, throwing 78 pitches. He had allowed 11 runs over his previous two starts spanning 8 1/3 innings.
The A’s had not lost 100 games in back-to-back seasons since 1964-65 in Kansas City. The A’s joined their Kansas City replacement, the Royals, as 100-game losers this season.
Paul Blackburn (4-5) allowed four runs, four hits and three walks in three innings, dropping to 0-5 with a 9.74 ERA in eight appearances against the Astros.
Alvarez and Bregman homered in a four-run third and Tucker went deep in the seventh against Easton Lucas. Yainer Diaz had an RBI double in the fifth.