By Morris Phillips

The last thing the A’s wanted was another losing streak, but there it was staring at them after more than four hours of baseball in Houston at Minute Maid Park on Saturday.

A dramatic home run with two outs in the ninth inning from Jed Lowrie got the A’s even, but Carlos Correa’s RBI single in the 12^th allowed the Astros to get past the A’s 6-5. The streaky A’s have consecutive losses after winning five straight, and fell back into sole possession of last place in the AL West.

Lowrie’s game-tying home run was his first of the season and a convergence of circumstances. The A’s second baseman has now had two stints with Oakland and Houston in his career, and been a teammate of Astros’ closer Luke Gregerson—the guy he homered against on Saturday—in both places.

But until Saturday, Lowrie and Gregerson had never faced each other in a game.

Lowrie fell behind 0-1, but golfed Gregerson’s curveball two rows into the right field seats, an economical home run that traveled just 349 feet, but allowed the A’s to get even after falling behind 5-3 in the fifth. For Gregerson, Lowrie’s homer meant a second consecutive blown save. For Lowrie, it meant his career-worst 40-game streak without a round tripper was over.

But it didn’t mean the game was over.

The A’s mounted rallies in the 10^th and 12^th without breaking through for a tie-breaking run. In the 10^th, with runners at second and third, Chris Coghlan grounded out to end the inning. In the 12^th, Marcus Semien was retired to end the inning with a pair of runners aboard.

Ryan Madson came on for Oakland to pitch the bottom of the 12^th, the seventh pitcher used by the A’s, and he was greeted by George Springer’s double. Jose Altuve sacrificed Springer to third, and Correa singled him home. Call it a lighting rally, Madson and the A’s were undone in just five pitches in the 12^th.

The A’s have suffered a five-game losing streak, three four-game losing streaks and a pair of three-game slides. Add a trio of two-game losing streaks and all but two of the team’s losses this season are accounted for. The A’s have been streaky with wins as well with a six-game win streak in April, the five-game streak earlier this week and a four-game streak as well.

Kendall Graveman started Saturday’s game, but didn’t survive the fifth inning, allowing seven hits and five runs. Graveman’s ERA sits at 5.49 after the short outing leading to speculation that he may be dropped from the rotation once Henderson Alvarez is ready in the coming weeks.

On Sunday, Sonny Gray comes off the disabled list to start for the A’s in a matchup with Houston’s Lance McCullers at 11:10 PST.