Sacramento A’s catcher Austin Winns (right) puts the late tag on Texas Rangers Danny Jansen (left) who scores on an RBI fly out hit by Brandon Nimmo in the last of the third inning at Globe Life Field in Arlington on Sat Apr 25, 2026 (AP News photo)

By Mauricio Segura

For five innings Saturday night, the Sacramento Athletics looked like a team ready to grab the wheel once again, and drive off with a clean road win. They struck first, built a three-run lead, and got a strong early outing from Jeffrey Springs. Then baseball did what baseball loves to do. It got weird, turned sideways, and reminded everyone that a lead in the third inning is not a savings account. The Texas Rangers rallied back, Josh Jung delivered the biggest swing of the night, and the A’s fell 4-3 after a game that started with promise and ended with a quiet ninth inning.

The first inning gave no hint of the early offense to come. Shea Langeliers, Nick Kurtz, and Colby Thomas all struck out in the top half, while Springs answered with a clean bottom half, retiring Brandon Nimmo, Andrew McCutchen, and Corey Seager in order. The A’s broke through in the second when Jacob Wilson ripped a sharp double to left. After Max Muncy struck out, Darell Hernaiz shot a ground-ball single into left field, bringing Wilson home for a 1-0 lead. Austin Wynns reached on Corey Seager’s fielding error, but the Athletics could not add more.

They did not wait long to stretch the lead. In the third, Langeliers opened with a sharp single to left, and Kurtz followed with a walk. Thomas then lined a single into center, scoring Langeliers and moving Kurtz to second. Tyler Soderstrom’s groundout pushed both runners up, and Wilson added a sacrifice fly to right to score Kurtz. Just like that, the Green and Gold had a 3-0 lead and looked sharp enough to make Texas pay for every extra base.

But the Rangers answered in the bottom of the third with a rally that was less thunderstorm and more slow leak. Danny Jansen was hit by a pitch, Evan Carter walked, and Sam Haggerty dropped down a soft bunt single to load the bases. Nimmo lifted a sacrifice fly to left to score Jansen. After Springs struck out McCutchen, Seager lined a single to center, bringing home Carter and cutting the Athletics’ lead to 3-2. Springs escaped by striking out Jake Burger, but Texas had shoved itself right back into the game.

From there, the middle innings became a wrestling match. Langeliers singled again in the fourth, Wilson added another single in the fifth, and Springs settled down after the shaky third. He worked through a one-out single by Jansen in the fourth and retired the Rangers in order in the fifth, including a nice first-to-pitcher groundout that saw Kurtz and Springs handle Nimmo cleanly. For a while, it felt like the A’s might survive the earlier scare.

The turning point came in the sixth. Seager opened with a single to right, and after Burger flew out sharply to left, Jung changed the entire night with one swing. He launched his fourth home run of the season to right-center field, scoring Seager and flipping a 3-2 Athletics lead into a 4-3 Rangers advantage. It was the kind of swing that does not just change the scoreboard. It changes the temperature in the building. Springs got through the rest of the inning, but the damage was done.

The Athletics had chances, though not many clean ones. In the eighth, Carlos Cortes came off the bench for Muncy and drilled a sharp double to right with one out. That put the tying run in scoring position, but Jeff McNeil, also entering as a pinch-hitter, flew out to left, and Wynns followed with a flyout to center. Texas had opened the door just enough for trouble, but the A’s could not kick it in.

Mark Leiter Jr. gave the Athletics a flawless bottom of the eighth, retiring Seager, Burger, and Jung in order, which kept the deficit at one. That gave the top of the order one last chance in the ninth against Jacob Latz. But the inning disappeared quickly. Zack Gelof grounded out to short, Langeliers was called out on strikes, and Kurtz grounded out to third to end it.

Wilson was one of the bright spots for the Athletics, finishing with a double, a single, a run scored, and a sacrifice fly. Langeliers collected two hits, Hernaiz drove in the first run, and Thomas added an RBI single. But the A’s also struck out ten times and managed only one run after the third inning. Texas did not pile up offense all night, but it did enough, and Jung’s two-run homer was the difference between a clean Athletics win and a frustrating one-run loss.

Sunday the rubber game series tied 1-1 starting pitchers for Sacramento RHP JT Ginn (0-0 ERA 3.74) for Texas RHP Kumar Rocker (1-1 ERA 3.48) first pitch 11:35am PDT.

Costa Rican-born Mauricio Segura has been covering sports in the Bay Area since 2001 for a variety of magazines and newspapers, as well as his own publication, Golden Bay Times.

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