Month: September 2021

The Texas Rangers Jonah Heim (28) watches the flight of his eighth inning two run homer against the Oakland A’s on Sat Sep 11, 2021 at the Oakland Ring Central Coliseum (AP News photo)

Texas 8 – 11 – 0

Oakland 6 – 9 – 0

By Lewis Rubman

Saturday September 11, 2021

OAKLAND–I’m not going to comment on today ‘s being 9/11. Not because the events of that day, their causes and consequences are insignificant, but because they are too significant to be dealt with by the platitudes that so often accompany ballpark commemorations.

This leaves the relatively insignificant matter of this afternoon’s contest between the Oakland Athletics and the visiting Texas Rangers as the principal topic of this dispatch.

The game started auspiciously for Oakland, with Starling Marte blasting a one out homer 407 feet into left field off of surprise starter Wes Benjamin to put the A’s ahead 1-0. It ended, two hours and 46 minutes later, in a crushing defeat, with Oakland blowing a four run lead in the eighth inning

The Athletics stretched their first inning lead in the second. With two down, DH Khris Davis slammed a double off the left center field wall between the 7-Up and Rickey Henderson Field signs and scored on Chad Pinder’s single to left, making the score 2-0.

Matt Olson’s 33rd home run and 95th RBI of the season, a 392 foot blast over the right centerfield scoreboard on an 83mph cut fast ball widened the gap between the teams to three runs.

The Rangers came back in the fourth with DJ Peter’s lead off single to left against Oakland starter Cole Irwin. A strike out later, Nick Solak drove him home with a line drive double that landed just inside the right field foul line.

Yoel Pozo followed that with a single to center that brought Texas to within a run of the A’s. But Irvin pute an end to that with back to back Ks of ex-Athletic Jonah Heim and of Charlie Colberson.

The A’s were back on the attack in the bottom half of the frame. Yan Gomes opened it up with a walk, and Mark Canha’s 17th round tripper, which flew over lthe glove of a leaping Leody Taveeras just to the right of the 400 foot sign in straightaway center field restored the Athletics’ three run margin.

A walk to Pinder and Elvis Andrus’s double to left, which put Pinder on third, sent Benjamin to the showers. One-time A Jharel Cotton took his place. Benjamin had thrown 62 pitches, 42 for strikes, in four innings, allowing six and achieving an equal number of strike outs.

In addition to the five runs that had scored when he left the game, he was charged with the one that came on Josh Harrison’s sacrifice fly to center that plated Pinder. Marte’s drive to the left field fence almost broke the game wide open, but it landed in DJ Peters’ glove for the final out (Davis had grounded to third for the first).

Irvin received a nice ovation from the crowd (if you can call it a crowd) of 7,945 when he struck out Leody Taveras to end the Texas seventh. They knew that, with the right handed batters coming up for the Rangers in the eighth, the southpaw wouldn’t be around to pitch that frame.

After Brett Martin, on the mound for the Rangers in the seventh, had retired the A’s in order, Irvin’s replacement by Sergio Romo was announced. Irvin had completed seven full innings, allowing two runs, both earned, on six hits and a walk. He struck out eight and threw 67 of his 93 pitches for strikes. He lowered his ERA to 4.04.

Romo did not perform his task as set up man well. After retiring Kiner-Fanefa on a hard hit ground to Harrison, who had replaced Chapman at the hot corner in the top of the fifth, he allowed a single to left by García and an egregious four bagger, also to left, by Peters.

There’s a world of difference between a 6-2 lead and one of 6-4. That lead shrank to 6-5 after Nate Lowe walked and stole second without a second glance from Romo, scoring on Yohel Pozo’s no doubt about it double to center. That was it for Romo.

Andrew Chafin, who’s been invaluable recently, came in to put out the fire, even though the Rangers had no one except Lowe in their line up who wasn’t either a right handed or hitter. Chafin got a quick two strikes on Heim before yielding a 477 foot gut wrenching round tripper that gave Texas its first lead of the afternoon.

Spencer Patton now entered the game as the Texas set man. Kemp greeted him with a safety to right center, but he was erased when Gomes hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

Yusmeiro Petit had to hold the Rangers scoreless in the top of the ninth if the A’s weren’t going to blow another large late inning lead. Leody Taveras had something else in mind. He blasted Petit’s first offering over the Stream Your A’s sign in left center for only his third homer of the year.

The Athletics now were trailing 8-6. Enter Joe Barlow, looking for his fifth save of 2021. Lowrie pinch hit for Davis and grounded out to short. Pinder flew out to center. Seth Brown, recalled from Las Vegas a couple of days ago, pinch hit for Andrus and lined a two strike single to right center, which brought up Harrison as the potential tying run. Brown took second on a wild pitch.

Then Harrison lifted a fly ball that looked like it would fall between García in right and Taveras in center. But García made an tumbling athletic catch to seal the Athletics’ fate for the date and cast more doubt on their fate for the season. Martin got the win for his one inning of work. He’s now 4-4, 3.38. Barlow got that fifth save he was looking for, and Chafin got tagged with the loss, his third, which was also his third blown save.

The rubber match of this three game series is scheduled for 1:07 Sunday afternoon, with James Kaprielian (7-4, 3.81) going against Taylor Hearn (5-4, 3.95). Then the A’s will hit the road, returning on the 20th to face Seattle.

Matt Olson (28) who had four RBIs for the Oakland A’s slides into second under Texas Rangers second baseman Nick Solak was forced out Solak makes the throw to first base to complete the double play at the Oakland Ring Central Coliseum in Oakland on Fri Sep 10, 2021 (AP News photo)

Texas 5 – 8 – 1

Oakland 10 – 16- 0

By Lewis Rubman

Friday, September 10 2021

OAKLAND–The Texas Rangers have been a bit of a burr under the Athletics’ saddle this year. The lowly vigilantes from the Lone Star state (51-88 going into tonight’s fray) are the AL West cellar dwellers and are likely to remain so under their season is little more than an unpleasant memory.

Their record against the A’s as they entered into the first of a three game set that will comprise the last two meetings between the two teams for 2021 was 7-9, close enough to give them a chance of winning the season series. That’s not likely, but it is possible. Oakland’s winning percentage is .506 against the Rangers, .551 against all other teams.

Texas had another factor going for them, the desire to be a spoiler. Schadenfreude, the consolation of also-rans.

Paul Blackman brought an 0-2, 4.12 record to the mound for the A’s. With the exception of his disastrous start against Toronto on September 4, he had improved markedly in both of his starts since his first big league appearance of the year, which came on August 18, when the A’s called him up from Las Vegas to face the White Sox.

His opponent, Glenn Otto, was acquired by Texas from the Yankees as part of the Joey Gallo deal. He was sent to Round Rock and promoted to the show late last month.

He impressive in his first start, in which he hurled five scoreless innings while striking out seven Astros. He allowed two earned runs on two hits and walk before leaving a tied game against the Angels in his other start

Tonight, in spite of a fast start by the Rangers and Blackburn’s early departure, Oakland was able to overcome Texas by a convincing score of 10-5, thanks in no small part by stong work by what might be a revitalized bullpen. A four hit night by Olson, who upped his RBI total to 94, combined with three hits each from Marte and Kemp didn’t hurt.

Blackburn struck out two Rangers in his 22 pitch first inning but still came out of the frame trailing 1-0. After Leody Taveras led off with an infield single, Isiah Kiner-Falefa hit a bounder to the mound, and the A’s starter elected to go for the sure out at first.

That put Taveras on second, and he came home on Adolis García’s crisp single to left center. He stole second without a throw, but Blackburn’s change up and curve got him those two punch outs that kept the damage down to a minimum.

The A’s got that run back and more in the second. Lowrie led off with a walk on a full count. Canha got hit for the MLB leading 23rd time of ‘21, moving Lowrie to second. Kemp singled with a hard ground to right, loading the sacks with Athletics.

Murphy lined a single to left that moved everyone up a base, which brought Lowrie in with the tying run. The A’s continued to advance station to station when Otto plunked Andrus, which gave Oakland the lead as Canha touched home. After Harrison struck out, Marte again moved the runners up a notch, with Kemp scoring the third Oakland tally.

Olson cleared the bases, putting the home team up 6-1 with what looked like a double to right, but a review on showed that he had stepped off second too soon and Kiner-Falefa had tagged him out. Oakland’s half dozen run rally was ended with yet another baserunning mistake when Chapman was called out on strikes.

The 6-1 Athletic lead looked pretty solid until Texas started to knock Blackburn around in the top of the next inning. One out singles by Kiner-Falefa and García put men on first and second.

Nate Lowe’s double to center drove in both of them and and cut the A’s lead to 6-3. A strike out later, Nick Solak’s single to left cut that to 6-4 and brought Deolis Guerra to the mound to replace the ineffective Blackburn.

He had lasted 2-2/3 innings, during which he threw 65 pitches, of which 37 were strikes. Bear in mind that every Ranger hit, of which there were six, contributed at least one to that last figure. All four of the runs against Blackburn were earned. He had three strike outs to his credit. Guerra held the visitors to a walk in his 1-1/3 innings of work.

Otto didn’t last much longer. Andrus led off the fourth with a double to left and, one out later, Marte unleashed a slicing drive to right center for a triple that streched the A’s lead to 7-4, sending Otto to the showers and Hyeon-Jong Yang to the mound.

The run that Marte scored on Olson’s subsequent single to center was charged to Otto, whose line ran 3-1/3 innings of mound duty, eight runs, all earned, on eight hits, two hit batters, and a walk. He struck out five and threw 78 pitches, 54 strikes.

Josh Harrison had gone hitless in the three at bats when he faced Yang with Murphy on second and Kemp on third and two out in the Oakland fifth. His ground single to left scored both runners and boosted the A’s advantage to 11-4.

Lee Trivino started the sixth for the green and gold. He looked sharp, setting the Rangers down. in order on a dozen pitches.

Dane Dunning, freshly activated from the COVID-19 list faced the A’s in the bottom of the sixth and survived a single by Khris Davis, who had replaced Lowrie as DH, and an error by usually reliable Kiner-Falefa at short, to keep the Athletics off the board. Yusmeiro Petit pitched a perfect top of the seventh for them. Then it was Dennis Santana’s turn to deal with Oakland in the home half of the inning.

It took him 28 pitches to do it, but do it he did, and Jake Diekman was on the mound, trying to mess with Texas in the eighth. It was messy, with three of the four batters he faced working full counts, but all they got for it was a walk. Josh Sborz handled the formalities of pitching to Oakland in the bottom of the inning.

That left it to Burch Smith to close down the visitors for one last frame. He faced the bottom of the order, Trevino, Pozo, and Hernández. Fly out to right. Fly out to center.

An infield single by Hernández brought Tavares to the plate, and his double to deep center field brough Hernández home with the Rangers´fifth run, the first the bull pen had alowed since it went into action in the third. A called third strike on Kiner-Falefa put the final touch on the A’s victory.

The win went to Deolis Guerra, who now is 4-1, 3.56, Otto, now 0-1, 6.92, took the loss. There was no save.

The Astros beat the Angels, so they Oakland still trails Houston by 5-1/2 games. Because the Mets handled the Yankees, the A’s are only a half a game out of the second wild card berth.

The series will resume Saturday afternoon at 1:07 with Cole Irvin (9-13, 4.10) pitching for Oakland and Kolby Allard (3-12,5.00) opposing him for Texas.