The Oakland A’s pitcher James Kaprielian rubs up the baseball in the foreground after giving up a top of the third inning home run to the Texas Rangers Marcus Semien at Globe Life Stadium in Arlington on Mon Aug 15, 2022 (AP News photo)

by Jerry Feitelberg

The Oakland A’s lost their ninth game in a row Monday night to the Texas Rangers 2-1 at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers fired their manager Chris Woodward before the start of the game. The Rangers, like the A’s, are in rebuild mode. They did spend 500 million dollars to sign Corey Seager and Marcus Semien. The Rangers’ story will follow in the game notes section.

The A’s were hoping to snap an eight-game losing streak. They sent James Kaprielian to the mound to face Texas. Kap has not more than six innings in his last 29 starts. Kaprielian did not snap that streak. He was the losing pitcher and is now 3-7. His line was five and 1/3rd innings, two runs, six hits, two walks, five strikeouts, and he gave up a solo home run to former A’s shortstop Marcus Semien.

The A’s scored their only run of the night in the top of the third. Nick Allen led off the inning with his third home run of the season and his second in the last two games. Semien homered to tie the game in the Rangers’ half of the third.

Texas scored the winning run in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, Leody Tavares triple to deep center field. A’s manager Mark Kotsay brought in lefty Sam Moll to pitch. Moll retired Eiler Hernandez for the second out. Texas’ left fielder, Bubba Thompson, singled to drive in Tavaras with the winning run. The Rangers win 2-1.

Game Notes: The A’s have lost nine in a row and are 41-75. They are 34 games under the .500 mark. The Rangers are now 52-63. The 2022 season has not been a banner year for either team. The A’s are on pace to lose over 100 games. 

Glen Otto (5-8) was the winning pitcher. Otto’s line was six innings, two hits, one strikeout, and six walks. The A’s managed just three hits in the game, but they received nine walks. They could not take advantage of Otto’s wildness. 

Lefty J.P.Sears (3-0, 2.20) will make his second start as an Oakland Athletic Tuesday night. The Rangers will use an opener, and the bullpen will handle the pitching chores. Their new manager, former third-base coach Tony Beasley won his first game as the Rangers’ skipper.

The time of the game was 3:10. 13,141 fans watched the Rangers down the A’s.

Here is the announcement from the Rangers about the dismissal of Chris Woodward.

The Rangers fired manager Chris Woodward amid a disappointing season that has them likely to miss the postseason for the sixth consecutive year. Third base coach Tony Beasley will take over as interim manager for the remainder of the season.

At 51-63, the Rangers are 9 1/2 games behind the third and final American League wild-card spot. The case can be made Texas is having a tough-luck season. The Rangers’ minus-2 run differential suggests their record should be close to .500 — a massive improvement from last year’s minus-190 run differential — but they are 6-24 in one-run games. A few lucky bounces and they could’ve been in the race. 

Woodward, 46, was in his fourth season as Rangers manager. The team went 211-287 (.424) under Woodward, though the club was clearly in a rebuild in 2020 and 2021. Texas committed over $500 million to free agents this past offseason, most notably Corey Seagar and Marcus Semien, and the brain trust surely expected to remain in contention longer this summer.

“We have had extensive discussions over the last several weeks, and while the team’s current performance is certainly a big part of this decision, we are also looking at the future,” Rangers executive Jon Daniels said. “As the Rangers continue to develop a winning culture and put the pieces together to compete for the postseason year in and year out, we felt a change in leadership was necessary at this time.”