by Jerry Feitelberg

The Texas Rangers beat the A’s Tuesday night at the O.co Coliseum by a score of 8-6. The Rangers gained a game on the Houston Astros to increase their lead in the AL West to two games. Lefty Sean Nolin started for Oakland and he was opposed by lefty Martin Perez. Neither pitcher did well and neither was involved in the decision. Nolin pitched five-plus innings allowing 5 runs and giving up seven hits. Perez went four-plus and he was touched for four runs and six hits. The A’s had a 4-1 lead after three innings of but Texas kept coming back and took the lead  in the sixth when they put three runs on the board. They scored two more in the eighth and held on as the A’s rally fell short in the ninth.

Texas took a 1-0 advantage in the first inning. Adrian Beltre singled to eight to drive in Delino DeShields from second. The A’s regained the lead in the bottom of the second when they scored three times. Josh Reddick walked with one out. Jake Smolinski tripled to left center to drive in Reddick. Marcus Semien also tripled to drive in Smolinski. Semien was thrown out at home when Billy Burns tried to surprise the Rangers with a bunt. Mark Canha followed with a single to drive in Burns.

The A’s added a run in the fourth The A’s put together a walk, single and two ground outs to record  their fourth run of the game. Texas came back in the top of the fifth scoring twice. Ranger catcher Chris Gimenez walked to start the frame. He went to third on a single by DeShields. Gimenez scored on a sac fly and DeShields tagged and took third on the throw. DeShields then scored on another sac fly to male it a 4-3 game.

The A’s got a run back in their half of the fifth. A single and  two errors, one by Beltre and one by left fielder Mike Napoli, allowed Oakland to have the lead 5-3 after five. Texas scored three runs in the sixth. Mike Nolin gave up a big fly to Mitch Moreland with a man on that tied the game. A’s manager removed Nolin and Drew Pomeranz took over. Pomeranz gave up a single to Elvis Andrus. Rougned Odor laid down a bunt that first baseman Mark Canha couldn’t handle. The Rangers used another sacrifice bunt to move the runners up and Andrus scored on a sac fly to put them up 6-5.

The Rangers scored two more times in the eighth. Andrus doubled with one out. He advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Odor. Gimenez hit a ball to right that bounced over the wall for a ground-rule double to put men on at second and third. Odor scored on a fly ball to second baseman Brett Lawrie. Lawrie made a sensational over the shoulder catch but Odor was ready and he tagged up and sprinted home with the score. The A’s rallied to score one in the ninth, but it was not enough as the fall to Texas.

Notes- The A’s tied a club record when they had  two triples in the game to give the forty for the season. The record for triples was set in 1968, the first year the A’s played here in Oakland. Also, it was the first time since 1992 that the A’s had back-to back-triples in a game. The Rangers recorded four sacrifice flies in the game.

Chi Chi Gonzalez was the winning pitcher and Drew Pomeranz took the loss.

The line score for Texas was 8runs on 12 hits and two errors. The line for Oakland was six runs on nine hits and two errors.

Felix Doubront will go for Oakland and Colby Lewis will pitch for Texas. Lewis will be looking for his seventeenth win of the year.

Time of game was three hours and thirty-eight minutes and 16,524 people paid to see the game.