HOUSTON -- Missed opportunities plagued the A’s in the first game of their current set in Houston, and the theme continued on Wednesday when they fell short of a chance for a big inning and wound up losing, again, to their AL West rivals.

The A’s fell to the Astros, 4-3, and this was as close as it looked -- a few more feet on a fly ball, or one more simple base hit, and Oakland could have realistically walked away a winner.

“We just don't have a lot of margin for error right now,” manager Bob Melvin said. 

The difference-maker ended up being a go-ahead homer from Kyle Tucker off starter Sean Manaea in the seventh, but the significance was twofold: it won the game for the Astros, and punctuated shortcomings during the A’s prior two turns at the plate that, with a little luck, could have gone differently.

The sixth inning looked promising at the start. Facing Cristian Javier, Oakland logged a walk and three hits, including a 406-foot solo homer by Elvis Andrus. The result was two runs, which tied the game at 3.

But an even better opportunity was lost -- Sean Murphy’s fly ball to left was too shallow to score Ramón Laureano from third, and instead, two outs were recorded when Michael Brantley nailed the A’s center fielder at the plate with a pinpoint throw to complete the double play.

Melvin acknowledged Laureano jammed his ankle on the collision with catcher Martín Maldonado at the plate, but Laureano brushed off any concern.

“The ankle, I’m good,” Laureano said. “[Brantley] made a perfect throw. And I’m out.”

Outs at the plate have been a recurring theme for the A’s of late. They’ve been eliminated at home on double plays on shallow fly balls three times in the past week, with Boston executing this twice during the A’s recent homestand, both in extra innings.

“That's what's happening right now,” Melvin said. “We've been aggressive all year, coming around third or trying to score guys from third. Right now, we're just getting a lot of good throws made on us and we're getting some guys thrown out. That was the case again tonight.”

Did Melvin agree with third-base coach Mark Kotsay’s decision to send Laureano on such a shallow fly ball and test Brantley, a strong defender?

“We're trying to score some runs,” Melvin said. “This is a difficult park sometimes to get a gauge on, because left field’s so short. But we're trying to push some runs across and on the other side of it, the defense is making some good throws on us right now.”

That’s not the only issue. In Wednesday's game, the A’s also struggled when the opposing defense lagged. The Astros made a series of miscues in a seventh inning that included two errors by Jose Altuve, who booted a routine ground ball from Frank Schwindel and dropped an easy throw from Carlos Correa that would have completed a double play. 

But the gift of extra outs did not generate extra runs. Andrus lifted a fly ball to left, and this time, the runner on third -- Skye Bolt -- stayed put. The inning ended when Matt Olson popped out to Altuve. 

The loss dropped the A’s to 5 1/2 games behind the surging Astros in the AL West standings. They’re averaging 3.9 runs over their past 10 games. As a result, many of these losses are looking the same as the others.

“We're going through a bad streak right now, where it seems like everything that can go wrong, is,” Melvin said. “We come back and we look like we're in pretty good shape, and we don't score a run, and next thing, it turns on us in a hurry. 

“We’ve just got to continue to grind. Earlier in the season these types of games, we were winning most of them, doing the little things. Right now, we're not.”