A’s vs. Astros game thread

The Houston Astros are back in Oakland, which means a lot of booing will be coming out of the Coliseum the next few days. The A’s, after taking two of three from the red-hot Boston Red Sox, will look to continue their own relative hot streak.

After starting the season 12-46 (0.207 win %), the A’s are at a much more palatable 15-25 (0.375 win %) since June 1st. Fortunately, they’re at such a wins deficit that they can keep trying to be good without worrying about falling out of the bottom four as they’re currently 12 games back from the fourth-worst team in the league, the Washington Nationals.

To try to scrap together some more wins, the A’s will be putting Hogan Harris on the mound, who hasn’t allowed less than 4 runs in a game for a whole month, carrying a 9.64 ERA since June 24th. Fangraphs credits him as not being quite that bad with a 6.45 ERA, but he’ll definitely need to improve to prove he can stick in the rotation. He’ll be facing off against the Astros’ J.P. France, who’s having a solid rookie season with a 3.31 ERA.

The A’s will be missing one of their best (and only) good hitters for a while as Ryan Noda went to the IL, with Jonah Bride taking his spot. The lineup is finally starting to skew more towards exciting young guys than washed up veterans:

And here’s the Astros’ lineu