Mason Miller starts as A’s begin series in Houston

The Oakland Athletics will continue their road trip Monday when they begin a three-game series against the Houston Astros. The A’s began the trip by dropping two of three in Texas to the Rangers. Rookie Mason Miller will get the start for Oakland in Monday’s opener while Houston will go with lefty Framber Valdez.

Miller made his major league debut back in April, but was put on the shelf due to some soreness in his forearm. He missed about three months and then completed a rehab assignment before rejoining the active roster on September 6th with a two-inning, scoreless performance. Miller is expected to be limited to around 50 pitches per appearance over the final three weeks of the season.

The Astros come into the series with a 2.5 game lead over the Seattle Mariners and a 3.0 game edge over the Rangers in the AL West standings. Oakland is just 1-9 against Houston so far this season.

Valdez is coming off of a good outing where he allowed just one run over seven innings against the Rangers. He tossed a complete game shutout against the A’s back on May 21. Valdez faced them again in July and allowed six hits and four runs over five innings at the Coliseum.

Oakland rallied from a 3-0 deficit Sunday to take a 4-3 lead, but watched the Rangers score the final six runs of the game in a 9-4 loss. The A’s had plenty of chances, but were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Tyler Soderstrom hit his third home run of the season while Ryan Noda, Seth Brown and Jordan Diaz all had two hits each.

Game Info

Game Date/Time: Monday, September 11, 5:10 p.m. PDT

Location: Minute Maid Park, Houston, Texas

TV: NBCSCA

Streaming: MLB.tv

Radio: A’s Cast, Bloomberg 960 AM / 103.7 HD2