Oakland A’s pitcher Cole Irvin gives up the ball to A’s manager Bob Melvin in the sixth inning at Globe Life Park in Arlington on Fri Jul 9, 2021 (AP News photo)

A’s Lose to Texas Despite Early Lead 3-2

By Barbara Mason

Once again we saw the Oakland A’s build an early lead only to watch it disappear into a losing effort. It is happening far too often resulting in losing series. They had early leads in their series against the Houston Astros losing two of the three games. This team is really struggling right now.

Tonight the A’s seemed to have the game in hand. Cole Irvin had a nice start through five innings but it was the sixth inning that was his undoing. The Rangers Adolis Garcia hit a two-run single pushing Texas past Oakland 3-2. The early hits that the A’s had shut down after the sixth inning. What is even worse is the fact that the Astros lost to the Yankees. A lost opportunity to gain ground in the standings.

Where have the bats gone for Oakland? It has gone back to the same old pattern with a hit here, a hit there. There were no home runs for Oakland in this game and so that has gone stale. There just seems to be something about the Texas Rangers that has the A’s stymied. The Rangers have had their number all season and show no signs of letting up.

The beautiful start that Cole Irvin had through five innings crashed and burned when he allowed three runs in the sixth inning. That was all that the Rangers would need to secure this game. The A’s had the bases loaded in the seventh inning but could not take advantage of it.

The eighth and ninth innings were three up and three down for the Rangers The A’s just could not get a thing going. They will be taking on the Rangers tomorrow in game two hoping to turn this thing around. If they hope to get back into contention something has to change. The defense had a nice game with a number of double plays but ti was the offense that let the team down once agains.

First pitch in Texas will be 1:05 tomorrow afternoon.