Chapman injures hand as A’s swept by Astros

OAKLAND — At this point, the Oakland A’s are just glad to see the Houston Astros get out of town.

Swept over a three-game series as they fell to the Astros, 7-3, on Thursday, the A’s have now lost seven in a row to Houston and are 1-8 against the defending World Series champions this season.

The meetings between the two teams have not been very competitive. After winning their first matchup of the season, the A’s have served as a punching bag for the Astros, outscored 70-28 over the nine games.

But perhaps an even bigger loss came during the game when Matt Chapman was removed from the game with what A’s manager Bob Melvin described as a hand contusion.

Though Chapman’s left hand was swollen after he was hit on his left hand with a fastball Tuesday night, it was the right hand that began to bother Chapman, leading to Chad Pinder replacing Chapman at third base to begin the seventh inning.

“It’s been bothering him progressively for the last few days,” Melvin said. “He’s been swinging the bat well and wanted to stay in the lineup, but it just got the point today where a couple of swings looked to me like it was bothering him.”

Chapman dealt with the same injury last November when he began his offseason hitting routine and began to feel discomfort in his right hand. He told the team and was sent for X-rays back then, but the results came back negative and Chapman decided to just take a break from swinging until January.

After feeling fine swinging the bat in January and February, Chapman began to feel the pain again during spring training and received a cortisone shot. The pain had lingered throughout the season, but it reached a boiling point Thursday.

“I was trying to push through it and obviously just couldn’t do it anymore,” Chapman said. “The last couple of days I really started noticing it again. It probably wasn’t good of me to not say anything. I wanted to be out there for the team, but at the same time, you can’t hurt the team.”