DETROIT -- Zack Gelof slapped a one-out double into left field off Tarik Skubal in the top of the sixth. A few minutes later, he was rounding third base and jogging home as Brent Rooker got the A’s on the board by launching a two-run homer to left -- his first home run of 2024.

That type of sequence from the top hitters in Oakland’s lineup has become a far too infrequent occurrence over the first week of the season. Though the result was still a 5-4 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park on Friday afternoon, seeing Gelof and Rooker get it going could be a vital development for the A’s, who have now dropped seven of their first eight games.

“Both those guys are going to be a big part of this offense,” said A’s manager Mark Kotsay. “They’ve gotten off to a little bit of a slow start. It was nice to see them swing the bats today and get us back into that ballgame.”

After striking out 10 times during a season-opening 0-for-12 streak at the plate, Rooker has now collected multiple hits in two of his past three games. His 355-foot blast came on a first-pitch slider left over the plate and cleared the Tigers’ bullpen. Making the homer all the more impressive was the fact that it ended a 22-inning scoreless streak for Skubal that began last Sept. 21 against the A’s at the Coliseum.

During Spring Training, Rooker discovered a flaw in his setup at the plate that led to some early struggles. The 2023 All-Star attributed his tough stretch to begin the regular season to a similar issue with the initial move he was making in the box.

“It’s funny how it’s always just one thing that kind of clicks,” Rooker said. “For me, it’s always a chain reaction. If something is going wrong later in the swing or I’m swinging at bad pitches, it’s always something happening early on with my setup. My process is always going back to the beginning of the setup and seeing what’s happening there. … Last three games, I’ve felt much better about my at-bats. To have some more productive at-bats today and hit a couple balls in the barrel, it’s good to be building momentum in the right direction.”

For an offense which has scored four or fewer runs in each of its first eight games -- the club’s longest season-opening streak since 1978 -- Friday felt like a positive step forward because of how it was able to break through against Skubal, who is emerging as one of the top young pitchers in the Majors.

Abraham Toro’s solo shot off Skubal in the seventh cut the deficit to a run, while JJ Bleday came around to score the tying run later that inning after his one-out walk chased the left-hander out of the game.

“He’s one of the better starters in the league,” Rooker said of Skubal. “We did a good job getting to him eventually. We kept battling and putting good at-bats together. To get him out when we did, it gave us a chance to win.”

Ultimately, it was Oakland’s third consecutive one-run loss. After the Tigers regained the lead in the eighth inning on Gio Urshela’s RBI double, a pair of walks to Toro and Ryan Noda in the ninth set the A’s up with the tying and go-ahead runs on base with only one out. But the promising late rally fizzled out. Nick Allen’s popout to shallow left for the second out was followed by Gelof striking out swinging to end the ballgame.

The past three losses, however, have seen a notable uptick in quality of play by the A’s. They’re playing mostly sound defense, their offense is taking more competitive at-bats and they’re getting better outings from their starters -- JP Sears improved from his first outing by allowing four runs on six hits, one walk and one hit batsman with one strikeout in 5 2/3 innings on Friday.

If this play holds up, the A’s believe a breakthrough in the win column will come soon.

“We’ve played good baseball the last three games,” Rooker said. “We’ve run into some really good starters that we’ve battled and had good at-bats against. … Three one-run losses in a row -- eventually, those are going to flip and we’re going to start winning those games. The focus is [to] keep playing the right way, keep putting the work in and trust that things will start to break our way.”