Jordan Diaz had something however a comfortable touchdown in his MLB debut. Astros starter Framber Valdez was steamrolling the A’s and struck out the rookie twice with a biting curveball in Oakland’s 11-2 loss on Sunday in Houston.
Valdez is placing collectively a season that has him sq. within the American League Cy Younger dialog. His dominance made for a impolite introduction for Diaz, who earned a call-up on Sunday after hitting .326 with a .881 OPS with Triple-A Las Vegas.
However with Valdez out for reliever Phil Maton within the seventh inning, Diaz discovered some gentle together with his first main league hit: an inside-out single into shallow middle subject.
However that was one in every of few A’s highlights in an Astros beatdown. The reigning AL West champions took three of 4 video games within the sequence behind a barrage of runs.
Ken Waldichuk, one other A’s rookie, couldn’t escape the third inning after giving up 5 runs within the body. Yordan Alvarez entered the sport having gone 7-for-12 with 4 house runs (three in Friday’s sport) on this sequence and added a three-run double that got here simply ft shy of a grand slam.
Alex Bregman and Yuli Gurriel added a pair of RBI singles to provide Houston a 5-0 lead earlier than the A’s obtained their first hit.
Unable to get a bat on Valdez’s sinker-curveball mixture, the A’s didn’t get a success till Shea Langeliers’ infield single within the fifth inning. Oakland capitalized when Valdez’s pitches began to remain up within the zone. Nick Allen and Tony Kemp hit back-to-back singles to arrange for Dermis Garcia, who blasted a middle-middle breaking ball 106 miles per hour off the wall for a two-run double.
However the Astros had loads of insurance coverage. Martin Maldonado went 4-for-4 with 4 RBI, together with a three-run house run within the seventh inning off Tyler Cyr.