Athletics get solid start from Aaron Brooks, but can’t solve Houston’s Framber Valdez

Remember when the Athletics were a .500 team? It wasn’t that long ago, May 4 to be exact, after a win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Now it’s a distant memory, and one that isn’t likely to be reached again in 2024. The Athletics were shut down by Framber Valdez and Seth Martinez Wednesday night, losing 3-0 at Minute Maid Park.

The A’s lost again despite an encouraging start from veteran right-hander Aaron Brooks, who at the very least earned himself another start although manager Mark Kotsay stopped short of assuring that he would.

Brooks gave up seven hits and three earned runs in seven innings with a walk and five strikeouts. As was the case in his eight Triple-A starts in Las Vegas, Brooks (0-1) did not allow a home run and 60 of his 84 pitches were strikes.

“I was a little nervous and had to get out there, wipe the dust off,” Brooks told reporters. “I think I did pretty well keeping the team in the game. I think that’s what we want as starters is to go out there and give our team a chance to win and I think I did that.”

It’s the fourth consecutive loss for the A’s, sixth in the last seventh games and ninth in their last 11. The Athletics have fallen to 19-26, their starting pitching rotation is in shambles and they’ve scored one run in the last 19 innings against an American League West rival that looked as if it rediscovered itself after a rough start and improved to 18-25.

Valdez (3-1), who owns a 104-pitch shutout win over the A’s last season, gave up just two hits with two walks and eight strikeouts in seven innings before giving way to Martinez for a two-inning save, his first of the season.

The A’s had just two hits, a swinging bunt single by J.D. Davis and a single past Jose Altuve at second by Shea Langeliers that was too hot to handle.

Oakland got the tying run to the plate in the top of the ninth when Brent Rooker reached on an error by Alex Bregman and Tyler Soderstrom walked. The rally ended when Langeliers grounded into a double play for the final outs.

“Framber is Framber and he’s tough to beat and you’ve got to have a good pitching performance to beat him,”  Kotsay said. “We got one tonight but we couldn’t do anything with him.”

Houston scored its first run six pitches into the game when Kyle Tucker doubled to right, with Altuve, who had singled, coming home on a a relay error by Zack Gelof. Alex Bregman added a sacrifice fly in the inning, with Mauricio Dubon adding another sac fly in the fourth.

Brooks, who provided Oakland’s first quality start in more than a week, hadn’t started pitched in the majors in two years or started a big league game since 2019.

A  Kansas City Royals ninth-round draft pick in 2011, Brooks eventually made the Royals and was traded to the A’s on July 28, 2015 along with Sean Manaea in exchange for Ben Zobrist. The A’s shipped him to the Chicago Cubs before the start of the 2016 season only to return to Oakland in 2018 for cash considerations.

After being designated for assignment, the Baltimore Orioles acquired him as a waiver claim. Brooks, 34, pitched in Korea in 2020-21 and spent time with the St. Louis and San Diego organizations before accepting a minor league deal with the A’s last February.

Brooks spent all last season in Triple-A with the Padres’ organization and the third opportunity with the A’s came when he texted general manager David Forst himself in hopes of finding a job.

“Building those relationships throughout the years, I figure there wasn’t much loss in seeing if there was a job opportunity and thankfully it worked out and I’m happy to be here,” Brooks said. “I’ve always felt comfortable here.”

There was a time when Brooks wondered if another chance was going to come his way.

“My wife and I have three kids,” Brooks said. “I signed late this year and it’s usually in December when I sign. We said if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be, and if it’s not we’ll move on. I stayed ready, kept my body ready. It’s been emotional as a family to potentially be out of the game to right now. It’s been a blessing for sure.”

The A’s hope to prevent a sweep in Houston Thursday night with Joey Estes (1-0) opposing Cristian Javier (2-1).