By Kahlil Najar

A pair of Danny Valencia homers doomed the Astro’s to their fifth straight loss and make the gap for the AL West championship between Houston and Texas even bigger.

The Astros scored one run in the each of the first three innings but in the fourth the A’s finally got on the board. Josh Reddick lead off the inning with his 19th homer of the year on a line drive shot to right field and Danny Valencia followed that up with his 15th homer of the year with a shot down the left field and cut the lead down to one.

Both teams went scoreless for the next three innings until Valencia continued his offensive proweness of the night as he hit his 16th of the year with Mark Canha on board and give the A’s a 4-3 lead.

“I was capitalizing on mistakes, just like any guy in our lineup would have done,” said Valencia. “Fortunately for me, I got some hitter’s counts. It just felt good that we won and that I came through for the team.”

Ryan Dull earned his first save of the year as he went two innings and struck out a pair of Astros.

Oakland outfielder Billy Burns entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the seventh inning after being out for the past eight games.

The A’s send up Sonny Gray (13-7, 2.56) against former teammate Scott Kazmir (7-10, 2.63) on Saturday afternoon in Houston.