HOUSTON — Any time a position player pitches, it’s usually under the worst circumstances. It typically means his team is getting blown out and the manager is trying to save a bullpen arm by summoning somebody from the field of play to the mound.

In the case of Astros outfielder Cooper Hummel, it also meant he became a part of history Friday night.

Hummel, who started the game in left field, gave up the fourth home run hit by Nick Kurtz in the A’s’ 15-3 win over the Astros at Daikin Park. Kurtz went 6-for-6 with a single, double and four homers off four different pitchers — starter Ryan Gusto in the second, relievers Nick Hernandez in the fourth and Kaleb Ort in the eighth and Hummel in the ninth.

“He’s a good hitter,” Hummel said. “I think it was 6-for-6 tonight, right? He swings a good stick, what can I say? He’s got juice and I saw two of them go over my head tonight. He’s a good player.”

Kurtz singled in the first inning, crushed a two-run homer in the second, had a run-scoring double in the fourth and solo homers in the sixth and eighth, setting the stage for his history-making at-bat in the ninth. He’s the 20th player in history to hit four homers in a game.

“That was pretty impressive, to be honest,” Astros manager Joe Espada said. “The power to all fields, we got a glimpse when we went to Sacramento. That’s pretty impressive. To create swing and miss in his approach, it’s not easy, but we got to make our adjustments and turn the page.”

The Astros were trailing, 11-3, when Hummel entered the game in the ninth inning. He threw 13 of 17 pitches for strikes, giving up four runs. He touched 83.6 mph and generated one whiff before he hit in the ninth.

“I kind of joked with [A’s catcher] Shea Langeliers. Before I hit that last at-bat, I told him, I said ‘Nick better have a bat sitting in my locker tomorrow.,'” he said. “But, yeah, I don’t know how to feel about it. We got stomped. We need to clean it up a little bit on the offensive side, me included. We’ll get ‘em tomorrow.”

Kurtz swatted Hummel’s 77.6 mph “slider” into the Crawford Boxes for his record-tying homer. It came off the bat at 107.4 mph and went 383 feet.

“Position player on the mound, I’m just trying to move the ball forward,” Kurtz said. “You don’t want to be the guy who strikes out. That was only my second at-bat ever off a position player. I was just trying to get something I can touch, and I hit another one.”

It wasn’t Hummel’s first time pitching this year. He has four career innings as a pitcher in the Minor Leagues, including one-third of an inning earlier this year for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the Yankees system.

Hummel threw two innings in High-A Carolina in 2018 while in the Brewers system and 1 2/3 innings last year at Triple-A Sugar Land, giving up nine earned runs and eight hits. His Minor League ERA is 27.00, which is much better than his Major League ERA of 36.00.

Hummel has played left field, right field and catcher in his big league career, and can now add pitcher to his résumé.

“Obviously, I’m in there because we’re down and or whatever the reason is when a position player pitches,” he said. “You’re just trying to fill up the zone. If you get hit, you get hit. In the end, you want to put up a zero. I don’t think anyone throws you out there expecting you to be Randy Johnson. You fill up the zone the best you can.”

When Hummel came to bat in the ninth, he was officially still in the game as a pitcher, which meant he had a chance to make some history of his own. No Astros pitcher has homered in a game since Jordan Lyles in 2012 — Houston’s last year in the National League.

“That would have been nice,” he said.

Alas, he flied out to right field to cap an 0-for-4 night that he’ll never forget.