By Morris Phillips

This time, the Rangers’ porous bullpen survived, while the A’s erratic bullpen did not.

Saturday night in Arlington, Texas, the A’s saw their 7-3 lead disappear in a wild seventh inning in which the A’s and Rangers combined to hit a pair of three-run homers and score 10 runs.

But when the smoke cleared and the inning ended, the game was tied.  When another brushfire broke out in the tenth, the A’s Ryan Cook and R.J. Alvarez could put it out, as the A’s fell 7-6 to Texas.

With the loss, the A’s have yet to win a one-run ballgame in 2015, falling to 0-6, and they’re 0-4 in extra inning decisions.  Incredibly, the A’s bullpen has suffered eight losses in the last two weeks alone.

Can injured closer Sean Doolittle get healthy fast enough?  For manager Bob Melvin, Doolittle represents a small piece of the puzzle.  Until the rest of the group improves, it may not matter how good Doolittle is if the rest of the group can’t do their part.

“Obviously, we’ve gone through a horrible stretch here,” Melvin admitted.  “We’ve just got to get better.”

On Friday, the Texas bullpen allowed all seven Oakland runs in a nightmare, eighth inning that led to a 7-5 loss.  Saturday, Texas starter Nick Martinez fell into trouble in the seventh, and the Rangers’ bullpen faltered again as Anthony Bass allowed a three-run shot to Josh Reddick to cap the A’s six run rally that overcame a 3-1 deficit.

But then the trio of Chris Bassitt, Dan Otero and Fernando Abad couldn’t get the A’s through the bottom of the seventh, allowing the Rangers four runs, capped by Shin-Soo Choo’s homer with a pair of baserunners aboard.  Choo came into the at-bat hitting .101 with one hit in his last 27 at-bats.  But Abad, the A’s lefty specialist, couldn’t retire the slumping, left-hand hitting Choo, and that quickly, the game was tied.

In the tenth, Choo found more success against Cook, leading off the inning with a double.  Then Cook walked the next two batters to load the bases, and Melvin had seen enough.

But that brought the seldom-used Alvarez into an almost impossible no-out bases-loaded situation that didn’t work out when Rougned Odor—the Rangers’ ninth-place hitter—delivered a game-winning single that scored Choo.

Thought to be a strength, the A’s bullpen has been a mess thus far starting with newly-acquired Tyler Clippard struggling in place of Doolittle.  Then 2010 All-Star Ryan Cook began the season at AAA Memphis in an attempt to regain his control.  But since his promotion, he’s failed to regain his command as his ERA ballooned to 10.38 after Saturday’s loss.  Falling behind in the count has been Cook’s big issue, and on Saturday he started just one of the seven batters he faced with a strike.

The A’s look to grab the rubber game of the series on Sunday with ace Sonny Gray facing Yovani Gallardo.  It’s the same matchup that went to Oakland on Opening Night, an 8-0 win.