HOUSTON -- A few hours before Wednesday’s game against Oakland, Astros manager Joe Espada gave a dire warning about the state of his bullpen.

“We are very limited,” he said.

That put the onus -- and perhaps some pressure -- on lefty starting pitcher Framber Valdez to work deep into the night and save Houston’s beleaguered bullpen. Houston had used five relievers to cover seven innings after Tuesday’s starter, Ronel Blanco, was ejected prior to the fourth inning because he had a sticky substance in his glove.

Valdez came up clutch for the Astros by throwing seven scoreless innings, combining with reliever Seth Martinez to pitch a two-hit shutout, to lead the Astros to their season-high fourth win in a row, 3-0, over the A’s at Minute Maid Park.

“Exactly what we needed,” Espada said. “It was a very strong performance. We needed Framber to take us deep into the game and he did that. That was a really good job.”

With their sixth win in their past seven games, the surging Astros pulled even with the A’s in the American League West standings heading into Thursday’s series finale.

Valdez relied heavily on his sinker and curveball and generated 11 ground-ball outs, including a 4-6-3 double play in the third inning, and one flyout. The only two hits he allowed came on a dribbler off the bat of J.D. Davis in the fourth and a two-out single by Shea Langeliers in the seventh.

“He had his best stuff tonight -- changeup, slider, curveball,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “He was front-dooring our righties with the sinker. When he gets in a rhythm, it’s tough. We pulled a lot of balls on the ground. That’s vintage Framber.”

In retiring the first six batters he faced, Valdez got three strikeouts and three groundouts to shortstop -- a sign he had his best stuff on a night the Astros desperately needed it.

“We talked to him early in the game about the urgency of getting deep in the game,” Espada said. “‘We need you to step up.’ He knows [what] the condition of our bullpen was going into this game. He did a really good job.”

How taxed was the Astros bullpen? Closer Josh Hader threw 30 pitches Tuesday, setup man Ryan Pressly had worked the previous two games (33 pitches) and Tayler Scott (46 pitches), Rafael Montero (39 pitches) and Bryan Abreu (24 pitches) had also worked two days in a row. Abreu briefly warmed up in the ninth before Martinez got Langeliers to hit into a game-ending double play.

”My mentality usually stays the same, but some of the other aspects need to change and adjust when I know I have to go deep into games,” Valdez said. “I have to throw my sinker in the strike zone and try to avoid dangerous counts for hitters, and I think that’s how I’m able to pitch deep into games.”

Valdez got two quick groundouts to start the seventh before a single and a walk zapped his chances of working into the eighth. Martinez finished off the shutout by getting ground-ball double plays to end the eighth and ninth innings. In all, Houston had 14 groundouts, two flyouts and nine strikeouts.

“I noticed from the dugout and from the game yesterday about how hard the bullpen fought throwing multiple innings and how they battled the last two days,” Valdez said. “I knew I needed to pitch deep into the game, and then after I came out [I was] trying to support Martinez throwing multiple innings.”

Oakland starter Aaron Brooks, making his first Major League start since 2019, held the Astros to three runs and seven hits in seven innings. Jose Altuve singled and Kyle Tucker doubled to start the first against Brooks and both wound up scoring. A Mauricio Dubón sac fly put the Astros ahead 3-0 in the fourth inning.

“We've got to control the tempo of the games and when we do that, we’re going to find ourselves in a good position to win games,” Espada said. “That’s exactly what we’re doing.”