A's lose to Astros 6-4

HOUSTON - On a night full of good news on surgeries and bad news on injuries, one constant that has dogged the A’s stayed with them in a 6-4 loss to Houston on Tuesday.

The A’s once again couldn’t find a way to win back-to-back games, not even with ace Sonny Gray doing the starting.

The A’s had two men thrown out at the plate in the second inning alone, either one of whom might have changed the flavor of this game had the safe call come down.

For Oakland, which won back-to-back games in Houston on April 13-14, there was no repeat magic. Max Muncy homered to get the A’s to within a run in the sixth, but that was as far as things went. And the game got out of hand when Fernando Abad allowed a two-run homer to Colby Rasmus and a solo shot to Jason Castro in the eighth.

Those three runs proved to be back-breakers, because Oakland tried to rally in the ninth against former A’s reliever Luke Gregerson.

Down 6-2, Brett Lawrie singled home a run, but with men on the corners and no one out, Mark Canha grounded into a double play. It got a run home, but quashed the rally.

The A’s would get the tying run to the plate again, but Billy Burns struck out against another former A’s reliever, Pat Neshek.

The game was costly for the A’s in that left fielder Coco Crisp had to leave with a neck injury, reminiscent of his neck problems throughout 2014. Before the game, the A’s said that starting pitcher Drew Pomeranz might wind up on the disabled list after coming down with shoulder trouble in his start Monday.

The good bit of news came from Florida, where starter Jarrod Parker had surgery performed on his fractured medial epicondyle by Dr. James Andrews. Andrews was able to make the repair and was further able to report that the Tommy John-style ligament replacement surgery of 2014 hadn’t been impacted by the fracture.

There had been considerable concern that Parker, who had been rehabbing from his second Tommy John surgery, might need a third.

There is no immediate prognosis on when he might be able to resume throwing, but it seems likely that Parker wouldn’t be pitching at least until deep in the second half of the season.

The A’s endured a wacky top of the second inning, then saw their base running foibles trumped by a two-run homer by their one-time first baseman, Chris Carter.

Muncy walked with one out off Roberto Hernandez in the second, then tried to score on a bullet double from Lawrie. Astros center fielder Rasmus tracked the ball down in right-center, and a quick relay to shortstop Jonathan Villar set up a throw to the plate that caught Muncy, tagged out by catcher Jason Castro.

Sam Fuld, with just two hits in his previous 45 at-bats, quickly followed by beating out an infield single to first base, and Lawrie tried to catch the Astros asleep. Unfortunately for the A’s, Hernandez was awake, taking the throw from Carter for the out at first, then firing to Castro at the plate for the out.

Compared to all that, the Astros’ two runs were simplicity itself. Rasmus doubled and Carter homered and Houston had a 2-0 lead after two.

Throughout his night, Gray labored to keep his pitch count down. He wound up throwing 104 pitches, though, and gave up a third run on Evan Gattis’ single through the left side of the infield with two on in the fifth.

Oakland came back to within one run in the sixth when Muncy, playing with his family and friends from Keller, Texas, on hand, homered to right off Hernandez in what would be the right-hander’s final inning.