By Kahlil Najar

OAKLAND – Oakland rallied in the bottom of the tenth to tie the game at two but fell short on their second rally in the eleventh and lost to the Houston Astros 5-4. Eric O’Flaherty  suffered his second loss of the year and the A’s relievers are now a MLB worse 1-5 with an era over 4. Former Athletic Luke Gregerson earned his first win of the year even though he gave up two runs in the bottom of the 10th.

Both offenses were put on hold through the first nine innings. Scott Kazmir threw seven solid innings with zero earned runs and seven strike outs and Houston’s Dallas Keuchel lasted all nine innings and struck out four.

Dan Otero opened extra innings with an Altuve fly out and Valbuena strike out. Then came George Springer to the plate. After battling for five pitches, Springer smacked his third double of the season into right field. With red hot Jed Lowrie coming up next, the A’s walked him to get to Marwin Gonzalez. Gonzalez made the A’s pay as he also hit a double into center field and scored Springer and Lowrie to make it a 2-0 Houston lead.

In the bottom of the 10th, Bob Melvin brought out three pinch hitters to try and spark some offense in the lineup. It worked like a charm as Sam Fuld and Steven Vogt both grabbed a hit and landed themselves at first and second with Josh Reddick who was subbed in for Craig Gentry. Reddick hit a line drive double into center field and scored Fuld and Vogt to tie the game at two. After an errant throw from Houston passed Houston’s catcher Hank Conger Reddick tried to score from third but was tagged out to end the inning.

“Once I see the ball get by, I figure, why not try?” Reddick said. “The ball was soaking wet rolling in the outfield grass. You’ve got to make a perfect throw to get me. I’m trying to win the ballgame. We haven’t been scoring many runs the past two games. I don’t see a problem with trying.”

In the top of the 11th Eric O’Flaherty came into the game and gave up back to back walks to Chris Carter and Colby Rasmus. Conger then laid down a sac bunt and moved both runners over. Robbie Grossman then his a shart single to left field and scored both Carter and Rasmus and made it a 4-2 game. Fernando Abad came in to releive O’Flaherty but then gave up a single to Springer and he scored Grossman to make it a 5-2 game going into the bottom of the 11th.

In the 11th, Marcus Semien hit his third homer of the year with Eric Sogard aboard to make it a 5-4 game. However with Ike Davis standing at second after a single and a wild pitch and no out, the A’s were unable to drive him home and ended the night on a deep fly ball out by Brett Lawrie to center field and put this game to bed.

“It went from a starting pitcher duel to a little bit of a slugfest later,”said head coach Bob Melvin. “You gotta look at the positives in it. We continue to fight every pitch of the game even though it looked bleak a couple times.”

On O’Flaherty’s outing Melvin said, “He’s getting pretty good movement. He’s just not harnessing it. He’s not throwing it over the plate. Just right now, the last few times have been a bit of a struggle for him.”

The A’s try to turn it around tomorrow when they send Kendall Gravemen (1-1. 6.94 ERA) up against Scott Feldman (1-2, 5.09 ERA). Game time 1:05am.

Notes: BART this weekend will shut down train service and carry passengers on buses between the Coliseum and Fruitvale stations.  The weekend work will continue from 7 p.m. Saturday through 4 a.m. Monday.  The free bus link between the two stations will run continuously, making the 2.5-mile trip between stations in 10 to12 minutes. Riders should allow an extra 30 to 60 minutes for trips, or make alternate travel plans.