Hapless Oakland A’s, on 11-game skid, eager to welcome back all-star pitcher

MLB: Oakland A's allow seven home runs to the Houston Astros; Paul Blackburn to face Atlanta Braves

OAKLAND – The Oakland A’s have had four players come off the injured list this month. A handful of others will be eligible to come off the IL in the coming days and weeks.

Considering the sorry state of the A’s pitching staff, no player will be welcomed back more than right-hander and 2022 all-star Paul Blackburn, who is set to start Monday against Matt Olson and the Atlanta Braves.

Blackburn might not be a savior, but his return to Oakland can’t come soon enough, especially after the A’s were blasted 10-1 on Sunday by the Houston Astros, who set a new record for the 55-year-old Coliseum by hitting seven home runs.

Yordan Álvarez hit two homers, and Jake Meyers, Chas McCormick, Jose Altuve, José Abreu, and Jeremy Peña each connected on one as the Astros swept the three-game series and handed the A’s (10-45) their 11th straight loss, their longest skid in close to three decades.

Luis Medina gave up Meyers’ three-run shot in the fourth inning and allowed back-to-back solo shots in the top of the seventh to McCormick and Altuve.

Medina and Garrett Acton combined to allow five home runs, with opener Ken Waldichuk and reliever Sam Long giving up the other two.

“If you leave the ball in the middle of the plate, you’re going to get hit,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “They’re going to take advantage of the mistakes, and the mistakes flew out of the ballpark.”

A’s pitchers have now allowed a staggering 96 homers this season, easily the highest total in MLB.

Kotsay noted the limited big-league experience of Medina, Acton, and Waldichuk. The three, after Sunday, have played in a combined 28 MLB games.

Still, the A’s are 0-6 against the Astros this season and 4-23 against American League West opponents.

“You’ve got to learn from what we’re going through,” Kotsay said when asked what his message is to his young pitchers. “If we don’t learn and we don’t get better, then we’re not doing our jobs here, especially with guys like Medina and Acton as well.

“You’re here and in order to show progress, you’ve got to learn from these mistakes. You’ve got to learn that execution can be just as important as velocity, especially against this Astros lineup.”

Now come the National League East-leading Braves, who entered Sunday with 86 homers, including 14 from Olson. The A’s losing streak is their longest since a 12-game skid from Sept. 22, 1995, to April 4, 1996.

Blackburn, 29, will be making his first start since Aug. 4 of last season. He missed the final two months with a tear of the flexor tendon sheath in his pitching hand then suffered a right middle fingernail avulsion early in spring training.

As that began to heal, Blackburn, roughly three weeks ago, started to develop a blister on his right middle finger, an ailment that cost him about a month’s worth of starts.

“It’s been a journey for Paul and a series of unfortunate events,” Kotsay said. “He’s obviously a big part of this group and in terms of experience, is going to be considered the elder statesman in the rotation.

“We’re hopeful that Paul can come back and provide a boost to the rotation and we get the Paul we did at the beginning of last season. It would be great not just for Paul, but for us as a club.”

At the time he was named an American League all-star last July, Blackburn was 6-4 with a 3.36 earned run average, with 73 strikeouts and 23 walks in 91 innings.

Blackburn said Friday that he’s still getting to know a few of his teammates considering all of the changes the A’s made in the offseason.

“It sucked being away and not having been here in seven weeks, just being away from these guys,” Blackburn said. “I kind of feel like I’m new around here with these guys, but everyone’s still coming in, getting their work in, and going out there and trying to have success.

“It’s been kind of a grind for us so far this year. It’s a long year only (55) games. All it takes is a little bit of a role to kind of flip the script a little bit.”

MILLER ON MEND: A’s pitcher Mason Miller, diagnosed two weeks ago with a mild UCL sprain in his right elbow, hopes to start throwing again sometime next month and remains optimistic he can rejoin the A’s starting rotation before the end of the season.

“I think with my situation, I’m just glad that it wasn’t more serious,” Miller said Sunday. “So I think I lucked out there.”

Miller initially feared he might need surgery when he reported some soreness in his arm after his last start for the A’s on May 7. The good news for Miller was that even the next day, he hadn’t lost strength or any range of motion.

“The natural human thing to do is think the worst,” Miller said. “So it turned out better than I thought, for sure.”

Miller said if he remains asymptomatic, he might start a measured throwing program in the “next couple of weeks” as he and the A’s medical staff work together to do “what’s best for me, the time I need, the progression I need. You want to have goals and benchmarks, but you’ve got to let it develop naturally, too.”