Hunter Brown Dominates A's; Tyler Soderstrom's Brief Slump

After a dramatic victory on Sunday against the Philadelphia Phillies that snapped the Athletics 11-game losing streak, they had a day off to rest up for another series against a tough opponent. The Houston Astros barely let the A's in the door before blasting seven runs across home plate in the first three innings of Tuesday's game, ultimately winning 11-1.

Astros starter Hunter Brown has been one of the best pitchers in baseball this season, so securing a win was always going to be tough for the A's, but coming off of Sunday's win, and a relatively close series overall against the team with the best record in baseball, the hope was that the game on Tuesday would be a bit closer than it ended up being.

A's starter JP Sears saw his struggles continue. Over his past three outings against the Giants, Angels, and now the Astros, he has totaled 12.1 innings of work, giving up 24 hits and walking four, which has led to 19 earned runs crossing the plate. He has struck out seven in that span.

Ahead of that start against the Giants, Sears was off to the best start of his career, holding a 2.80 ERA through eight outings. For the A's to contend, they need Sears to get back to where he was at the beginning of the season.

"There's no lack of confidence with JP taking the mound" A's manager Mark Kotsay told reporters after the game. "I think the lack of execution and pitch-making tonight was kind of evident. He didn't have very many swing-and-miss. I think the strikes to swing ratio, they made contact quite often and were fouling pitches off. We'll go back to the drawing board with him."

The other big takeaway from this game was the continued struggles of left fielder Tyler Soderstrom, who went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts in this one. Over his last four games, he is just 1-for-16 and has struck out 10 times.

Obvously four of those were on Tuesday, while another three came against Jesús Luzardo on Sunday. Brown and Luzardo are two of the best in baseball, so it's understandable that he'd struggle a little bit. After Sunday's game, Kotsay mentioned that Soderstrom was having trouble picking up the spin against Luzardo.

Against the Phillies lefty, Soderstrom was dominated by the sweeper and seemed to have no answers at the plate for that one. On Tuesday, he saw a steady diet of sinkers and curveballs against Brown and the bullpen. That is, except for when he faced left-hander Steven Okert, who struck him out on three straight sliders.

Typically, it would be ideal to drop Soderstrom down in the lineup a bit while he figures these pitchers out, but with the A's roster being fairly right-handed at the moment, Lawrence Butler, Soderstrom, and either Logan Davidson (switch-hitter) or CJ Alexander are the only real lefty options for the lineup on a daily basis. Recently called up Drew Avans is another option, but he's more of a platoon bat at the moment.