HOUSTON -- With three key players (All-Star starter Jose Altuve, All-Star Yordan Alvarez and Michael Brantley) out injured and other veterans sitting out to rest after a red-eye flight from Los Angeles, Friday’s game was a tough one for the Astros’ offense.

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That’s largely how it played out, even against the last-place A’s in front of a boisterous crowd of 39,434 at Minute Maid Park. The lethargic Astros scored just one run courtesy of a Jose Siri sacrifice fly and managed only four hits in the 5-1 loss, with lefty Cole Irvin setting the tone for the A’s via six innings of one-run ball.

“We had a rookie lineup in there,” said Astros manager Dusty Baker, whose nine-man lineup had six names -- Jake Meyers, Jeremy Peña, Chas McCormick, J.J. Matijevic, Korey Lee and Siri -- with two years or fewer of MLB experience. “They were doing the best they could, at the time.

“But you don't get any excuses or alibis. They beat us. We just have to come out tomorrow and hopefully be fresher tomorrow than we were today.”

Meyers, who went 0-for-3 with a walk and two strikeouts, echoed that assessment.  

“It's tough, but it's no excuse,” said Meyers, who arrived back in Houston with most of his teammates at approximately 6 a.m. Friday morning. “It's still baseball. Both teams had to get here somehow. They played better than us today.”

Baker credited Irvin for attacking Houston’s weakness.  

“He knew the condition of our team,” Baker said. “Everybody knew the rest factor. He came out throwing a lot of breaking balls, first-pitch strikes. We had a young team that’s usually aggressive, and that kept his pitch count down. He used his veteran savvy. He's a good pitcher, and his [4-7] record is not indicative. He's pitched well, he just hasn’t won.”

“He located really well,” Meyers said of Irvin. “He had a good rhythm and just executed pitches.”

José Urquidy (8-4) was dealt the loss after allowing three runs on six hits over 6 1/3 innings with nine strikeouts. It was an electric start for the young right-hander through six scoreless frames, but things spiraled quickly in the seventh when Seth Brown, Chad Pinder and Elvis Andrus greeted Urquidy with a single, double and single, respectively.

What was once a 1-0 Astros lead quickly turned into a 2-1 deficit, and the A’s put the game out of reach in the ninth with a two-run homer by Skye Bolt off Seth Martinez.

“I was very focused, trying to compete and throwing everything through the zone,” Urquidy said. “They attacked me in the seventh. That's part of the game, and I hope to be better in the [second] half of the season.”

Urquidy has now thrown six consecutive quality starts since ditching his cutter in early June with a plan to focus more on his slider, four-seam fastball, curveball and changeup. 

“I was wasting some throws with that pitch,” Urquidy said. “It wasn't the right time. I have to practice it a lot. Right now, I feel very good without that pitch and more comfortable.”

But for the weary and short-handed Astros, comfortable wasn’t enough. On Friday, Urquidy needed to be almost perfect to compensate for the anemic offense. 

“He was outstanding,” Baker said of Urquidy. “He was throwing the ball great. We were trying to press him [deep into the game], because our bullpen was a little bit upside-down. We just couldn't muster up much offense, and that was the ballgame.”

With two games left until the All-Star break, the Astros are hitting like a team in need of some time off. They’ve scored just five runs over their past three games, with one of those coming courtesy of the automatic runner on second to start the 10th inning on Thursday in Anaheim.

Houston (58-31) still owns a 10-game lead in the American League West, but the Astros know they need their star-studded offense back to pre-injury form if they want to make a run at New York (62-28) for the AL’s top seed in the 2022 postseason. 

“I keep my eye on the Yankees, to see if we can get that home-field advantage,” Baker said. “But at the same time, you don’t want to risk life and limb to get that.”