ASTROS’ LOSING WAYS CONTINUE; RANGERS FALL

The Houston Astros’ skid continued Thursday afternoon, as they suffered their ninth loss in their last 11 games.

The Oakland A’s rallied for a 3-1 win, their fourth win over the Astros in the five-game road series.

Josh Reddick doubled and scored on a double play to give Houston a 1-0 lead in the sixth.  But Oakland rallied with Matt Olsen’s two-run home in the bottom of the inning.

They added an insurance run in the seventh on Chad Pinder’s rbi-single.

Jose Urquidi (0-1) pitched five shutout innings before yielding Olsen’s homer.

The Astros will have a rare Friday off before visiting the Dodgers for games Saturday and Sunday.

The Angels scored three runs in the first inning and rolled to a 6-2 win over the Rangers, Thursday afternoon.

Kyle Gibson saw his record slip to 1-5 on the season as he gave up five runs on 10 hits over 5.2 innings.

Anderson Tejada was the lone offensive highlight for the Rangers with a double and an rbi.

The Rangers open a home series Friday night with the first-place Oakland A’s.