A’s dominated by Valdez, swept by Astros, clinging to moral victories

With a record of 10-38 and smarting from being swept for the seventh time this season following a 2-0 road loss to the Houston Astros Sunday, the Athletics are deep into the moral victory stage of a lost season.

Moral wins supposedly aren’t part of professional sports, but in reality they always have existed even if they’re never recognized as such by the principles.

Left-hander Framber Valdez put the A’s on lockdown, spinning his fifth career complete game and second shutout, giving up five hits with no walks and seven strikeouts in evening his record at 4-4 and dropping his ERA to 2.45.

With a strong five innings from James Kaprielian, the A’s had three above-average performances from their starting pitchers against Houston, which improved to 27-19. It was the seventh straight win for the defending World Series champions. The games were all competitive and the A’s played some sparkling defense.

It was three losses, but not the kind of losses the A’s absorbed back in April when they were being embarrassed in Tampa Bay against the Rays, a sweep that concluded with back-toback 11-0 defeats.

“We can build on this series,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay told reporters. “I know the wins weren’t there but from the standpoint of (starting pitching) getting better and keeping us in games, they did that this weekend and if we can continue to do that I think it can lead to success.”

The A’s did next to nothing offensively against Valdez. The first hit came when Valdez was late covering a grounder to the right side, with Jesus Aguilar getting a gift single. Aledmys Diaz hit a dunker to right for a single in the fifth, Esteury Ruiz a sleight-of-hand double in the sixth and Nick Allen a single to right in the ninth.

Valdez threw 104 pitches, 64 of them strikes, with 13 batters retired on ground outs.