HOUSTON — Immediately following the final out of the Athletics’ 13-2 loss to the Astros on Saturday, the players and staff in the green and gold quickly gathered their belongings and made their way to the clubhouse.

The last person in the visiting dugout was one Kade Morris, sitting on the top bench by himself and staring intently at the empty field as the 30,211 fans filed out of Daikin Park.

The day the 23-year-old from Turlock had dreamed of for much of his life simply didn’t go the way he had imagined. Morris, in his highly anticipated major league debut since being called up from Triple-A on Tuesday, gave up nine runs on nine hits and three walks in four-plus innings against the Astros.

“Yeah, I just sucked,” Morris said postgame. “It’s as plain as it gets. First one, I wanted a good one, and just couldn’t get it done.”

The 2020 Pitman High graduate and No. 12 A’s prospect retired the first batter he faced, Jeremy Peña, by inducing a grounder to third base that was fielded cleanly by Zack Gelof. He proceeded to walk star slugger Yordan Alvarez before allowing a double to Christian Walker. The Astros scored their first run of the afternoon when Alvarez came around on a sacrifice fly to left field.

With Walker still standing at second and former World Series hero, league MVP and batting champion Jose Altuve at the plate, Morris battled. After falling behind in the count 3-2, Morris delivered a 94.5 mph sinker that ran in on Altuve, who couldn’t check his swing. It marked the first strikeout of Morris’ major league career, and the first of what would be four on the day.

“I had a little bit of nerves. After I got going, I felt good.” Morris recalled telling himself after the first inning. “It was, ‘Let’s go now.’”

The Astros had other plans for the rookie.

On his second pitch of the second inning, Lamonte Wade Jr. ambushed a fastball over the middle of the plate, sending the ball 359 feet into the Crawford Boxes. Later in the inning, Morris walked two batters and allowed a single to bring up the daunting Alvarez with the bases loaded and just one out. The early-season MVP candidate promptly crushed an 89.3 mph changeup thrown in his sweet spot down in the zone for a grand slam.

After circling the mound in disappointment, Morris struck out Walker and forced Paredes to hit a weak grounder to the right side of the infield to escape the inning.

“Unfortunately, crooked inning right after the first one,” Morris said. “I kind of wasn’t able to breathe. But I was trying to respond rather than react. I wasn’t able to.”

The Astros continued to slug in the third, with Altuve exacting his revenge on Morris by jumping on a hanging slider for a leadoff home run.

“Everything felt good, a couple breaking balls I just hung over the middle of the plate,” Morris said. “That’s not a recipe for success, so I think going on this next week (is about) just getting better, locating some of the stuff down and get it out of the middle of the zone.”

The fourth inning proved to be the best for Morris, as he set down Christian Vazquez, Peña and Alvarez in order for the first 1-2-3 inning of his career.

Morris allowed consecutive hits to Walker and Paredes to start the fifth inning before out came manager Mark Kotsay from the dugout to replace the youngster in the 7-2 ballgame. Reliever José Suárez allowed both inherited runners to score on a Wade double.

“In general, execution of the pitches is the story today,” Kotsay said. “Obviously, with Yordan, bases loaded and nowhere to put him, it’s a tough matchup for Kade in that situation. He left the changeup kind of out over (the plate) that Yordan hit out… For his first outing, it’s a tough at-bat for him to challenge Yordan in that situation.”

Along with Altuve, Morris also struck out Walker and Jake Meyers in the second inning, as well as Vazquez in the fourth inning. He tossed 90 pitches, 56 for strikes.

“He did get some swing and misses today,” acknowledged Kotsay. “There was some positive to the outing. But unfortunately, first time out, execution became a big part of the result.”

Morris believes there is no point in pondering over the rough start if he wants to be successful in the bigs moving forward.

“So what? Get back to work,” he said. “This one hurts. Take it to the house tonight, but come back tomorrow ready to work.”