Oakland A’s closer Zack Jackson shuts the door on the Texas Rangers and gets congratulated by A’s catcher Sean Murphy at the Oakland Coliseum on Sat Jul 23, 2022 (AP News photo)

By Jerry Feitelberg

OAKLAND–The A’s won their third game in a row as both teams failed to produce any offense. Texas committed three errors as they handed the game to the Green and Gold on a silver platter. The A’s prevailed 3-1.

The A’s righty James Kaprielian continued to pitch well. Kaprielian did not get a decision, but he pitched well. His line was five innings of work and allowed two hits and no runs. Kap walked two and struck out four.

He threw 90 pitches in his five innings of work. The Rangers had a bullpen game. Matt Bush pitched the first inning for Texas. Taylor Hearn gave Texas three and 1/3rd innings. He kept the A’s off the board.

The A’s, who have lost two or three games giving teams runs without any hits, became the recipients of a Texas reliever not being able to find the strike zone. The Rangers had Dennis Santana on the hill to start the bottom of the sixth.

Santana walked Vimael Machin, Ramon Laureano, and Sean Murphy on 16 pitches to load the bases with no outs. Matt Moore replaced Santana on the mound. A’s first baseman, Seth Brown, hit a grounder to Rangers’ first baseman Nathaniel Lowe. Lowe’s error allowed Machin to score the A’s first run. Chad Pinder drove in Laureano with a sacrifice fly. The A’s led 2-0 after six.

Domingo Acevedo retired the first Texas hitter to start the seventh. Exequiel Duran doubled to get a runner in scoring position. Acevedo retired Meibrys Viloria for the second out.

Former A’s standout Marcus Semien doubled to drive in Duran with the Rangers’ first run. Lefty Sam Moll was summoned from the bullpen to pitch to left-handed hitter Corey Seager. Moll won the battle.

The A’s got another gift run in their half of the seventh. With one out, Nick Allen singled. Allen went to second on a wild pitch. He then advanced to third on Viloria’s throwing error. Machin drove in Allen with a sacrifice fly. The A’s led 3-1.

There was no more scoring in the game. A’s reliever Zach Jackson set the Rangers down 1-2-3 to earn his second career save. The A’s win 3-1.

Game Notes: The A’s have won three straight games for the second time this season. The A’s have won five of their last seven and are now 35-62. The Rangers have lost 14 of their last 20 games and have fallen to 42-51.

The line score for Oakland was three runs, six hits, and one error. Texas’ line was one run, seven hits, and three errors. When teams make three errors in a game, they usually lose. The Rangers learned that lesson on Saturday.

The A’s will be going for a sweep on Sunday. Their ace, Paul Blackburn, will go for Oakland. Blackburn is 6-5 with an ERA of 3.62. Getting the sweep will not be easy as Texas will have lefty Martin Perez, on the hill. Perez has beaten the A’s earlier in the year and is 7-2 with an ERA of 2.68.

The game will start at 1:07 pm.