By Morris Phillips

The A’s aren’t a bad team.  But they were one on Saturday.

First off, Kendall Graveman struggled again, his shortcomings contributing to an 8-0 deficit in the seventh inning, prompting questions about his role going forward in the starting rotation.  Throw in poor defense, quiet bats, bad news on the health front and mix in a little bit of booing from the fans at the Coliseum, and a not so pretty picture emerges.

The A’s sit in the middle of a muddled AL West race at 8-11, three games back of the Astros.  But after losing to Houston for the second straight day, 9-3, the A’s have lost four of five and don’t seem particularly close to developing a winning identity.

“We’re not playing very well here in the last five games or so,” manager Bob Melvin said.  “At this point, we’re not doing anything to terribly right.”

Make no mistake, the visiting Astros have made a sizeable contribution to what ails the Athletics.  Winners of six of seven, Houston is the AL’s early surprise club, sporting a winning record thus far against each of their four division rivals.  The Astros have seen a serious uptick in their starting pitching just as the A’s have seen theirs take a step back.

Familiar face Scott Feldman pitched into the seventh inning, allowing five hits and three runs while the Astros hitters handled the rest.   Jose Altuve and George Springer homered, the highlights of the Astros 11-hit attack that knocked Graveman out of the game in the fifth.

As for Graveman, he needs to turn it around in short order after another subpar start.  The signs of improvement in the rookie’s deliveries were missing almost immediately.  Former Athletic Jed Lowrie doubled home a run in the first, and Altuve followed one inning later with a three-run jack that put Houston up 4-0.  Seemingly everyone with a uniform and a pulse noticed right away that Graveman was struggling to hit his spots.

“He’s a command guy that usually isn’t in the middle of the plate,” Melvin said.  “He’s usually on the corners with subtle movement and having a tough time finding that in the fashion that we saw in spring training.”

Graveman’s ERA sits at 8.27 after four starts, following an eye-opening spring that saw him sport an ERA of 0.36.  Melvin declined to speculate on the rookie’s spot in the rotation but the A’s have options with Jesse Hahn ready to resume his spot after a blister issue and Jesse Chavez capable to start as well.

The A’s failed to push anything across in the first six innings, one day after they went a full nine innings scoreless before a burst of offense in the tenth and eleventh.  The day started with the news that Ben Zobrist will miss a much as a month to recover from knee surgery.  Max Muncy was recalled from AAA Nashville and made his big league debut at third base, while Marcus Semien assumed Zobrist’s third spot in the batting order.  But Muncy looked nervous, and Semien went 0 for 4 with a pair of strikeouts if anyone was doubting the A’s would miss their veteran jack of all trades.

In the seventh, things got dicey defensively as well.  Normally sure-handed Josh Reddick went casual and a catchable fly ball off the bat of Luis Valbuena glanced off his glove for a two-base error.  Two batters later, left fielder Cody Ross aggressively called off Semien on a fly ball between the two but failed to make the catch.  That gaffe loaded the bases for the Astros and they then pushed across two more runs to make 8-0.  A’s fans, having exceeded their daily limit for patience, responded with a round of boos.

Oakland has committed a major-league worst 19 errors after Ross and Reddick’s contributions on Saturday.

The A’s did push across three runs in the bottom of the seventh–highlighted by Muncy’s aggressive slide into second base that prevented the Astros from turning a double play—but did little else.

On Sunday, Oakland will look to avoid a sweep with Drew Pomeranz pitted against the Astros’ Asher Wojciehowski.