Oakland A’s pitcher Cole Irvin pitches into the top of the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers at the Oakland Coliseum on Fri Jul 22, 2022 (AP News photo)

Texas (42-50). 4. 7. 0

Oakland (34-62) 5. 9. 1

Friday, July 22, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

OAKLAND– In their last outings, two of the Oakland Athletic’s top three starters strutted their stuff before scouts from all of MLB’s pennant contenders at the All Star Game in Los Angeles this past Tuesday. A’s pitcher Paul Blackwelll hurled an impeccable fourth inning, not allowing anyone except Willson Contreras to reach first, and he did it on an error. The three batters he retired were Trea Turner, Albert Pujols, and Joc Pederson.

A’s starter Frankie Montás followed that in the second game of Thursday’s doubleheader against Detroit, in which he demonstrated his recovery from the shoulder inflammation that had kept Blackburn from throwing a pitch in anger for the previous two weeks by blanking the Tigers over three innings on two hits and a walk, and still throwing fastballs in the mid to high 90s until he left the game.

Friday night game recap: It was the turn of left handed Cole Irvin, who came to the game at 4-7, 3.21, to try to stop the visiting Texas Rangers and impress the visiting scouts in search of southpaw they can acquire for prospects between now and the August 2 trade deadline. Texas threw Spencer Howard, a right handed rookie who will turn 26 next Thursday. He carried a 1-1,6.97 record to the mound. The A’s would pick up their second straight victory behind the handiwork of Irvin by edging the Rangers 5-4.

The Athletics announced three roster moves before game time. They recalled David McKay from Las Vegas and optioned another right handed moundsman, Domingo Tapia, to the AAA Aviators. Zach Logue, who had been added to the big team’s roster to start the first game of yesterday’s twin bill, also was returned to AAA.

The 28 year old Irvin had been on a streak, going 2-1, 1.80 in his three previous starts. He extended it tonight, going seven plus frames and holding Texas to two runs, one of them unearned and the other posthumous, on three hits and a walk. As usual, Irvin was economical in his pitch count, which was 84, including 57 strikes. He got the win and improved his record to 5-7, 3.08.

His mound rival for the Rangers began his work poorly, shifted into high gear, and then fell apart after throwing 81 pitches, 48 of which counted for strikes, over 4-2/3 frames. He allowed four runs, all of them earned, on six hits, two of which left the park, and three walks, and saw his already high ERA balloon to 7.11. He took the loss, his second against one win.

Howard showed an early propensity towards wildness, throwing 22 balls in his first 34 pitches, and it cost him. With Skye Bolt and Tony Kemp on base with walks with two down in the bottom of the second, Vimael Machín lined a double to right that scored both runners. At least, that’s what the A’s thought until Texas claimed that the ball had been trapped under the fence. Their claim was upheld by New York, and Kemp was returned to third, and Oakland had to settle for a one run lead after two innings of play.

As if he’d been buoyed by that reversal of fortune, Howard settled down and retired the next nine Athletic batters in a row.

In the interim, the visitors from the Lone Star State tied the score in the top of the fourth on a single by ex-Athletic and Cal star Marcus Semien, who was forced out at second by Corey Seager’s grounder into the shift.

Seager advanced to second on Jonah Heim’s ground out to second and scored on Adolís Garía’s single to center. Irvin might have been in real trouble after that, when Nathaniel Lowe hit a sharp single to right, but Ramón Laureano cut García down with a laser beam throw to third.

The last of Howard’s skein of outs came on Machín’s blast to right that Eliér Hernández made a jumping catch of at the 367 foot marker. The rookie’s downfall was precipitous. Laureano drove a 3-2 four seamer 399 feet over the center field fence for his tenth home run of the year, Murphy singled sharply to left, and Seth Brown drove an 80mph cutter 424 feet deep into the center field seats, giving him a dozen dingers on the seasons and Oakland a 4-1 advantage.

After Andrus followed these displays of power, southpaw Brock Burke relieved the beleaguered starter. After yielding a base knock to Chad Pinder, he got Skye Bolt to fly out to right to end the outburst. He also put the A’s down in order in the sixth.

When the “crowd” of 6,620 had finished singing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” Jonathan Hernández was on the mound for the crew from Arlington. He held the A’s scoreless.

Once Irving walked Leody Taveras to open the eighth, his night was over. Zach Jackson allowed that inherited runner to score. After retiring Ezequiél Durán, striking out pinch hitter Josh Smith, and getting the pinch hitting Kole Caloun to swing and miss on a third, he seemed to have finished his job.

But the third strike on Calhoun was a wild pitch, and Murphy´s throw to first was errant, allowing the batter to reach first and Taveras to take second. Marcus Semien took advantage of the opportunity and dropped a single into right center that narrowed the gap between the teams to 4-2. Sam Moll entered the game and restored order by retiring Seager on a single to center.

Oakland got that run back in their half of the eighth. With José Leclerc now pitching to Texas, Stephen Vogt hit a two out pinch hit single to right that plated Andrus, who had doubled to left center and moved to third on Bolt’s ground to second.

The responsibility of holding the resulting 5-2 lead fell on A’s reliever Lou Trivino, who had to face the meat of the Ranger order. He got Heim on a grounder to Andrus, playing in the shift to the right of second. He struck out García swinging for the second out.

What looked like a final wrap became tense when Trivino served up an 80mph slider to Nathaniel Lowe, who parked it in the right field seats for his 13th four bagger, making it a 5-3 game. Tavares followed that with a walk and motored to third on Durán’s single to left.

Trivino got a 1-2 count on Smith but couldn’t seal the deal; Smith singled to left, bringing in Tavares and reducing Oakland’s lead to a single tally. That did it for Trivino. In came AJ Puk, who plunked Calhoun to load the bases for Simien, who had gone two for four at this point. He grounded out to third, and the A’s had dodged the bullet.

The teams will go at it again Saturday night at 6:07, with the A’s sending James Kaprielian (1-5, 5.09) against the visitors’ Taylor Hearn (4-6, 5.78) going for the Rangers.