Oakland A’s struggles: When’s the last time an MLB team started this poorly?

OAKLAND – Oakland A’s right-hander James Kaprielian hasn’t experienced anything like this before. He’s pretty sure none of his teammates have, either.

In fact, for well over a century, no player on a Major League team has lost on such a consistent basis as the A’s have this season.

Thanks in part to their own miscues and some misfortune, the A’s allowed four runs in the third inning and lost 5-2 to the Houston Astros on Friday before a postgame fireworks-influenced crowd of 13,345 at the Coliseum.

At 10-43, the A’s, now on a season-high nine-game losing streak, have the second-worst record of any big-league team since 1900, only ahead of the 1904 Washington Senators, who were 9-41 after 53 games (with three games called with the score tied).

“This is a challenge. I mean, this is tough,” said Kaprielian, now 0-5 this season. “I’ve never gone through something like this. I don’t think anyone has. We’re historically losing games right now, unfortunately.”

Seth Brown hit a two-run homer in the seventh inning, but that was it for the A’s offense, which has now scored two or fewer runs in eight straight games. That’s the longest such streak since May 10-18, 1979, with the team record being a nine-game stretch from Sept. 10-17, 1978.

Add in some inconsistent starting pitching and some shaky defense, and the A’s are now 4-21 against American League West opponents, with their series against the Astros continuing with games Saturday and Sunday.

“This start can test your character, for sure,” said Mark Kotsay, Oakland’s second-year manager. “If we sit here and dwell on the negatives, there’s no chance for us to turn this thing around. Focusing on the positives through a difficult time, it’s not fake because there are positives.

“The more we can continue in that direction, the more we can build on those positives, for me it’s the right way to think instead of the negative thought.”

Astros starter Hunter Brown retired 15 straight batters between the first and sixth innings. He finished with 10 strikeouts over seven innings, with Seth Brown’s homer one of just four hits that he allowed.

“Hitting, it definitely can get contagious and we just don’t have enough guys in the lineup right now,” Kotsay said. “We can’t put consecutive at-bats together to build that momentum.”

Friday’s game got out of hand in a hurry.

With the A’s trailing 1-0 in the third inning with one out, an Alex Bregman fly ball fell between outfielder Seth Brown and third baseman Jace Peterson — landing right on the left field line — allowing Jose Altuve to score.

Kotsay said per Statcast, it would have been a tough catch for Brown to make. But Brown felt he could have made a better play.

“I feel like I could have caught that, for sure,” Brown said. “That’s a play I’ve got to make and it’s one of those things where it just can’t be caught between us like I did. I didn’t call it early enough and didn’t call it early out the gate to give myself a chance to just get there and get under it.”

After Kaprielian got Jose Abreu to pop out with the bases loaded, A’s catcher Carlos Pérez had a slider pop right out of his glove to allow Yordan Alvarez to score for a 3-0 Houston lead with two outs.

Corey Julks then followed that with a two-RBI single to center, giving the Astros a 5-0 advantage after just 2.5 innings.

Kaprielian, making his sixth start of the season, was otherwise solid as he retired six of the last eight batters he faced to go five innings, marking the third straight start he’s gone at least five.

“Stuff was all right. It wasn’t enough for us tonight, which is disappointing,” Kaprielian said. “We’re kind of on a big losing skid right here and I wanted to really be the force that kind of took the ball today and was able to lead us out of this (streak) that we’ve got going, help these guys around me and just turn this thing around.”

Seth Brown’s homer was his second in as many days, but the A’s struck out 15 times in all.

In their last seven games prior to Friday, the A’s were batting .177 (39-for-220) with 10 runs scored, six doubles, one home run, and 10 just walks. Overall, Oakland before Friday’s game had the lowest batting average in the majors (.222), the third-lowest slugging percentage (.362) and OPS (.661), and the fourth-lowest on-base percentage (.299).

Right in the same company as this season’s Athletics team, the 1932 Red Sox won their 53rd game to move to 11-42, then lost the next eight and 13 of 14.

“It’s one thing where everybody’s pressing and going out there every day, trying to push through this funk,” Brown said. “I think everybody’s just kind of in that mode of what more can we do as a team and as a player, and it’s just one of those things where it’s got to break.

“Everybody’s feeling that pressure. (Kotsay) is doing a phenomenal job of keeping us motivated and keeping us in there and trying to keep it light. We’re all doing absolutely everything we can out there to turn it around.”

Perez was charged with catcher interference in the fifth inning, giving Oakland its 34th error of the season. The A’s entered Friday with a .982 fielding percentage, which was tied for 24th out of 30 MLB teams.