Category: Oakland Athletics

The A’s keep on winning

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628x471by Jerry Feitelberg

The A’s keep on winning

The Oakland A’s won their fifth straight game downing the Los Angeles Angels 10-5 Monday night in Anaheim. The A’s clinched the AL West crown Sunday but are not content being the second seed in the AL. They are now just one game behind the Red Sox and if the Sox falter , the A’s can claim the top seed and the A’s and not the Red Sox would face the Wild Card. If that should happen, Detroit would play Boston in the ALDS.

Tommy Milone started for Oakland and he pitched well. Milone went 5 1/3rd innings giving up 5 hits

and four runs. Two of the runs were unearned. Milone struck out eight and walked just one and picked up his twelfth win of the year. The A’a scored two in the first and in the third Jed Lowrie who blasted a three run homer to give the A’s a 5-1 lead. The Angels came back with three in their half of the third. Howie Kendrick doubled with the bases loaded and all three runners scored.

The A’s scored two more in the fifth. Lowrie walked and scored ahead of Brandon Moss who hit a towering home run to right field. The A’s made it 8-4 in the sixth when Chris Young doubled to start the inning and he came home on an Eric Sogard single. The Angels scored their fifth run of the game in the bottom of the sixth. Josh Hamilton tripled and then scored on a sacrifice fly.

The A’s put the game out of reach when they scored two more runs in the top of the ninth. The A’s called on Grant Balfour to close the door on the Angels. It wasn’t easy as the Angels had two men on with one out but Balfour struck out the last to batters to secure the win.

Game Notes- The A’s have now won five in a row, eleven of the last thirteen and are 17-5 for September. Their record of the year is 94-63. Josh Donaldson had two hits in the game and was his 56th multi-hit game of the season and needs one more multi-hit game to tie the A’s team record.

Jed Lowrie hit his fifteenth home run of the year and when asked about the team’s success he said we’ve “done a great job the last couple of weeks.” When asked about his ability to hit home runs, Lowrie replied “ doubles are a power stroke and homers are doubles that go out.”

The A’s have five games left in the season. The play the Angels Tuesday night in Anaheim. A.J.Griffin will go for Oakland and Jason Vargas will be on the hill for the Halos.

Back to back AL West Champions!

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By Emily Zahner

 

OAKLAND, CA—The Oakland Athletics (93-63) didn’t need 9 innings for a reason to celebrate, all it took was three. With their magic number down to one, Oakland needed to either defeat the Minnesota Twins (65-90) this afternoon, or see Texas lose. Halfway through the top of the third, cheers started to erupt throughout the stadium, and yet the out of town scoreboard still read the Texas Rangers and Kansas City Royals were locked in a 0-0 tie in the 10th. After Sonny Gray surrendered a 3-run homerun by Oswaldo Arcia, the A’s finally got out of the inning. That was when a replay was shown of KC’s Justin Maxwell, with two outs in the 10th, crushing a grand slam that instantly sent the A’s into the post season. Once again, at the expense of the Texas Rangers, the A’s would be crowned the American League West Champions.

Not that the A’s needed the Royals help anyway… Oakland erupted for six runs in the 2nd inning, and then added one more in each of the next five innings. The A’s celebrated their division title on the back of a four-game sweep by means of an 11-7 rout of the Twins. Oakland starter Sonny Gray became the youngest pitcher in A’s history to win a division clinching game at the young age of 23. Gray was elated, “this is the best baseball day of my life… today is a very exciting day.” Even though they all knew their fate in the third, Sonny was determined, saying he knew something had happened in the Texas game, but still had a game to win.  Gray did struggle a bit, giving up four earned runs on seven hits through five innings pitched, but with the offensive tear his team appears to be on lately, it didn’t even matter. Gray isn’t worried about where he will land on the post season roster, just as long as he is a part of the team.

After tonight’s game, the A’s finish off the regular season with a three game series in Anaheim, followed by a three game set in Seattle. From here on out, the A’s will be focused on the post season. A’s manager Bob Melvin is ready, saying “we’ve got some unfinished business going forward… we’re going to enjoy today and look forward to tomorrow”. He has extreme confidence in his squad, “this is an unselfish group that just wants to win.” The players themselves are ready, Australian closer Grant Balfour said “we know how to play and we know how to win”.

Not only did the A’s clinch the West today, but Coco Crisp made history as well. In the 6th inning, after Eric Sogard reached first on a single, Coco walked. The two initiated a double steal, and Coco became only the 10th player in Oakland history to have a 20 homerun-20 stolen base year. Players all through the lineup stepped up huge today. In the 7th spot, Daric Barton went 3-3 with a walk; just a triple short of the cycle. Homeruns were a plenty today, and Oakland saw bombs from Crisp, Barton, and Jed Lowrie. Barton has made a huge impact since being called up from Triple A Sacramento on August 24th, and Melvin is taking notice, “I don’t see how Barton could not be on the post season roster”.

This marks the second consecutive and 16th overall AL West Division title for the Oakland Athletics. If the standings hold, the A’s will most likely face the Detroit Tigers once again in the ALDS. With the way this team has been playing, they’re ready for anyone.

 

Game Notes: Josh Donaldson has reached base safely via hit or walk in 27 consecutive games. Oakland has reached a season high of 30 games over .500. Josh Reddick had two outfield assists today, doubling off Brian Dozier in the 7th and Oswaldo Arcia in the 9th.

A’s a cinch to clinch after smashing the Twins

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Twins Athletics Baseball.JPEG-0a1baby Morris Phillips

With their magic number reduced to one, the A’s won’t be doing a whole lot of scoreboard watching on Sunday.
 
In fact, if the burdened Rangers lose or the A’s top Minnesota for the fourth straight day, all eyes will be on uncanny, unlikely back-to-back division winners in Oakland.  The A’s set up the comfy scenario on Saturday, by routing the Twins at the Coliseum, 9-1.
 
“Right now we got to do what we do,” Jarrod Parker said of capturing the AL West title.  “We know it’s right there.  If we handle what we do and we win games, it’s going to happen.”
 
So self assured were the A’s on Saturday that they shook off a two-hour rain delay and more clubhouse sewage issues only to smash the Twins in basically two acts—inning number one and number two.   Alberto Callaspo’s two-run shot capped Oakland’s five-run second inning and basically ended the afternoon for Minnesota starter Pedro Hernandez.  The A’s led 6-0 at that point and Parker did his part, shutting down the Twins through six innings.
 
Afterwards, the A’s watched intently in their clubhouse—as did a smattering of fans in the stadium—as the Rangers closed out the Royals in Kansas City, 3-1, to keep their divisional hopes alive.  Earlier, Cleveland also won, 4-1 over the Astros, to keep the A’s from clinching a wild card playoff berth.
 
But none of that seemed to matter to the A’s even as the attendants removed the plastic covering the lockers, if only for one more day.  Now the best case scenario would be the A’s clinching the division title while they’re on the field Sunday, if Texas loses their game that starts approximately two hours prior to the A’s game at 1:05pm.
 
“We’re going to continue to go out there and try to play our kind of baseball,” Josh Donaldson said.  “We’re going to try and win tomorrow even if (Texas losing) comes about.  I’m sure if we’re playing they’ll do something on the loudspeaker or something.”
 
Since trailing the Rangers on August 30 by three games, the A’s have won 17 of 22, the best run in the major leagues since that date.  With 92 wins under their belt, the A’s are just two short of their 2012 total of 94 with seven games yet to play.  And the Twins will be happy to see the A’s go away:  in the last two weeks, Minnesota has dropped games to the A’s by 15 runs (18-3), 11 runs (11-0) and six runs (8-2) prior to Saturday’s eight-run difference.
 
Callaspo, Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes each homered on Saturday to support the A’s 16-hit attack.  Parker picked up his 12th win of the season and Jerry Blevins pitched two scoreless innings to end it. 
 
On Sunday, the A’s have rookie Sonny Gray slated to throw the first pitch of the afternoon with Minnesota’s Cole De Vries as his opposition.

A’s bury Twins, 11-0; magic number is now 2

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By George Devine, Sr.

Friday, September 20, 2013

A sellout crowd which included a thousand SRO customers packed the O.co Coliseum to see fireworks. They didn’t have to wait until the end of the game, or even until the end of the fifth inning, as the A’s exploded for an 11-0 shutout of the visiting Minnesota Twins. This win, coupled with the Texas Rangers’ loss to Kansas City, reduced to 2 the magic number for Oakland to clinch the AL Western Division, which they could do against the Twins at home in either of two remaining games in the present series.

Yoenis Cespedes hit his 25th homer of 2013 to left center field in the home second. Then Derek Norris doubled to right and scored when Josh Reddick singled towards second, coming home himself when Daric Barton singled to right. In the fourth, Norris singled to center, stole second with Alberto Callaspo batting, reached third on a throwing error by catcher Chris Herrmann and scored when Callaspo singled to left.

In the fifth, Oakland tore the Twins apart. Josh Donaldson walked,and advanced as Jed Lowrie singled to center. Norris was hit by a pitch thrown by Minnesota starter Andrew Albers, moving Donaldson to third and Lowrie to second. Chris Young reached first o n a throwing error by third baseman Eduardo Escobar which allowed Donaldson, Lowrie and Norris all to score. Callaspo singled to right, plating Young, then reached third when Reddick singled to center. With Barton at bat, reliever Ryan Pressley’s wild pitch allowed Callaspo to come home. In the next inning, the home team added two more runs as Crisp walked and then came home on Josh Donaldson’s homer to left center, his 24th of the season.

Albers takes the loss (2-4; 4.2 ip, 8 h, 8 r, 3 er, 1 w, 2 k, 1 h, 1 hb) and Bartolo Colon is the winner (17-6; 6 ip, 5 h, 1 w, 8 k). The two teams meet again at 1:05 p.m. PDT on Saturday, September 21, with Jarrod Parker (11-7) facing southpaw Pedro Hernandez (3-1).OAKLAND ATHLETICS VS. MINNESTOTA TWINS

Sewage back up talk takes front and center over A’s success

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MLB: Los Angeles Angels at Oakland Athletics

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

OAKLAND–A’s owner Lew Wolf says it’s the fans fault that things are depressing at the Coliseum according to one AP report and to add insult upon injury the A’s dugout toilet backed up on Tuesday night’s game which took much of the attention away from the game. A few weeks ago when the Tampa Bay Rays were in town their starter Fernando Rodney was in the bathroom in the Rays dugout and he was going to warm up and he locked himself out and he couldn’t get out of the bathroom dugout and it took 20 minutes for a maintenance guy to come out and rescue Rodney.

Rodney couldn’t even come out and warm up but Joe Maddon the Rays manager had a great sense of humor at the time saying, “the way he was pitching let him stay in the bathroom” this is an embarrassing place not just for the A’s but for Major League Baseball. It’s just not for the A’s but they play somebody else like the visitors who come into the Coliseum, it’s embarrassing for everybody in the American League because you play every team this is not only embarrassing for the A’s but it’s embarrassing for the game. Then Lew Wolf is saying the reason why it’s depressing at the Coliseum is because of the fans, it’s getting embarrassing for the A’s off the field but they’re winning where it counts on the field.

Bob Melvin & A’s leaving A.L. West in the dust: A’s manager Bob Melvin could win the manager of the year he’s really done a marvelous job for this team this is not that much of a talented team it’s just a bunch of kids who are hustling Yoenis Cespedes hasn’t had a great season, Josh Reddick has been hurt most of the year, so Melvin deserves a lot of credit the A’s are eventually going to win this division as they have a 6.5 game lead with about 11 games left their going to win it.

Things have been great for the A’s, the attendance has been great this year and the A’s plan to open up the third deck and take off the tarp for the playoffs, the only tarp that won’t be taken off will be the one at the top of Mount Davis right next to the sky and all the way up top because those are the nose bleeds and I’ve been told if you sit there you can’t see the centerfielder because your right on top so as many of you know Mount Davis is not for baseball but everything else going to be open and it’s going to be a great place to be in a couple weeks.

The Angels are going to finish third and the Angels are still fighting as their five games under .500 to finish with 81 wins and I don’t know if their going to be able to do it. They might have been playing great but it’s too late now it’s been a great disappointment. The biggest teams in the American League are the biggest disappointments the Angels and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays were stacked with all kinds of stars and their fighting to stay out of the cellar.

It happens, it’s baseball and that’s why they play 162 games and the A’s this year are a lot better than last year and I wouldn’t be surprised this time if they draw the Detroit Tigers again. They might take the Tigers and the A’s took three out of four from the Tigers at Comerica and they could beat the Tigers this time.

Rangers Ron Washington gets vote of confidence: Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington got a vote of confidence from Texas management and that’s good and I’m glad to see that because he doesn’t get the media coverage. A lot of minority managers don’t get much recognition like the Cuban manager of the Braves Freddy Gonzalez or Reds manager Dusty Baker and the like. Gonzalez is doing a great job with that team.

It’s good to see Washington getting a chance from the Rangers and getting a vote of confidence, he’s a good man I wish he would have come back to Oakland as manager of the A’s. He’s won two pennants with the Rangers in 2010 and 2011. The Rangers had lost Nelson Cruz this season with that suspension for PEDs so the A’s are having problems and Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish who is pitching remarkable for Texas and a few days ago he lost a great duel to A’s pitcher Bartolo Colon whose 40 years old.

The A’s are looking very good and it should be a very exciting divisional playoffs. The Twins are coming to Oakland for a weekend series and half of the team is a triple A team although the Twins Joe Mauer is hitting way over .300 who is fourth or fifth in the league in hitting and Mauer has won three batting titles already. The Twins could hurt you but if the A’s win three out of four from the Twins they could clinch at the Coliseum.

If the A’s can sweep the Twins they’ll still be one game short unless they get help from Texas if they lose a few this weekend to Kansas City as they enter Thursday’s schedule with a magic number of five. In four games you still need the Rangers to lose one game so there’s a good chance the A’s could clinch this Saturday or Sunday at the Coliseum.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio and is the Spanish radio voice for A’s baseball

A’s edge Twins, reduce magic number to 4

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(category Oakland Athletics)

(tags baseball,Athletics,MLB,Coco Crisp)

By Daniel Dullum
Thursday, September 19, 2013

Coco Crisp belted a two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday, powering Oakland to an 8-6 win over the visiting Minnesota Twins at the Coliseum.

The victory lowers the Athletics’ magic number for clinching the American League West title to four. Any combination of A’s wins and Los Angeles Angels losses totaling four does the trick.

The A’s remain 6 ½ games ahead of Texas in the AL West race. The Rangers defeated Tampa Bay 8-2.

Minnesota’s Brian Dozier hit an RBI single in the top of the eighth that tied the game at 6-6. But in the bottom of the eighth, Crisp hit his 21st home run of the season off Twins reliever Shairon Martis (0-1).

The Athletics took a 6-3 lead in the sixth when, after Crisp and Josh Danaldson each singled, Jed Lowrie smacked a three-run bomb. Earlier that inning, pinch-hitter Alberto Callaspo tied the game at 3-3 with a solo homer.

Stephen Vogt’s sacrifice fly and an RBI double by Josh Reddick accounted for the other Oakland runs.

Oakland reliever Sean Doolittle (5-5) worked the final 1 1/3 innings to get the win.

Oswaldo Arcia homered in the seventh inning for the slumping Twins, who lost for the seventh time in their last nine games.

A sparse crowd of 11,461 watched the 3-hour, 41-minute contest.

A’s ACORNS: The AP reports that OF Yoenis Cespedes received a cortisone shot on Wednesday to address tendonitis in his right shoulder. Cespedes did not play Thursday, but could return to the lineup on Friday. … Before the game, Coco Crisp was named as recipient of the 2013 Jim “Catfish” Hunter Award, given to the A’s player that exudes “the good nature and spirit” of the late Hall of Fame pitcher.

Manager’s Decisions

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By Jerry Feitelberg

One of the most difficult jobs in all of baseball has to be the manager of the club. The manager has many tasks that he has to perform every day. One of those tasks is making out the lineup for each and every game. Some managers like to use a set lineup so that that the players will be hitting in the same spot every day. The Detroit Tigers, for example have Miguel Cabrera hitting third and Prince Fielder hitting fourth. The Tigers do this as it is most beneficial to the especially in the late innings. Other managers like to make changes daily. A’s manager, Bob Melvin, has used, if you can believe this, 132 different lineups in the 152 games the A’s have played so far this year. Some lineup changes are made by necessity as a player may be injured or may have a personal matter that requires him to be away from the club. Melvin, however, is blessed this season with a deep lineup and he can go with a lineup that meets the clubs need on a given day. For instance, if an opposing club is starting a left handed pitcher, Melvin can use the switch hitters and right hand hitters Josh Donaldson and Yoenis Cespedes everyday. Melvin can then use right handed hitters at first base, second base, left field and maybe right field. When the A’s are facing a righty, Melvin uses his lefty bats at catcher, DH, second base, first base  and left field. These moves don’t always work but they give him a lot of flexibility so that the A’s can win.

Another task is deciding what roles the pitchers are to have. Who will be the starters. That again depends on the health of the players. Once  the manager establishes the starting rotation, he has to decide which pitcher will be his “long man.” The long relievers come in when the starter has a bad outing and has an early exit from the game. Decisions have to be made on the “set up “ guys. Who will pitch the seventh inning? Who will pitch the eighth? Who will be the closer ? And who will pitch if any of these key pitchers are unavailable due to a heavy workload. The manager has to make decisions all through the game. Do I bring in a lefty to face a lefty? Decisions are made on how well a particular pitcher gets out a certain hitter. For example, Melvin brought in Jerry Blevins to face the Angels’ Josh Hamilton the other night. Hamilton hits from the left side and has a lot of power. Blevins, however has great numbers against Hamilton. Melvin brought him in to pitch in a key situation and Blevins struck Hamilton out. Melvin is a genius. In another game with the A’s leading 4-2, Melvin brought in his closer, Grant Balfour, to face Hamilton. This time Hamilton won the battle as he hit a two run homer to tie the game in the ninth and the Angels eventually won the game. Have to remove the genius tag.

There are so many more decisions that a manager has to make during the game such having the runner steal a base or putting down a sacrifice bunt to move a runner into scoring position. So many more things going on in the manager’s mind as the game moves along and far too many to list at this time.

So, when you go to the game, it’s fun to see if you can guess what the manager is going to do. Also, keep in the mind, the opposing manager is doing the same game and it is this mind game that makes baseball the magical game that it is.

 

Michael Duca on A’s and Giants

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by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–When it comes to Josh Donaldson he’s probably the best player the American League left off the All-Star roster and there’s little doubt that Donaldson has been pretty consistent and is number two in the A.L. in WAR which is one of those stats when you go to replace a player all year and that’s probably the best one or actually judging a player. He’s just about the best in the A.L. at providing victories for a team both offensively and defensively.
Donaldson has played an outstanding third base he would probably be the leading candidate for the gold glove if it weren’t for Mario Marchado in Baltimore and he is amongst the best offensive third baseman in the A.L. if it weren’t for the Miguel Cabrera guy in Detroit. He’s sort of the avis of third basemen in the A.L. second best defensively, second best offensively, probably best all around.
Donaldson in the playoffs:  To know how Josh Donaldson is going to do in the playoffs is something you can’t ask before the playoffs. How big of a role was the Giants Marco Scutaro last year? Nobody was expecting that, how big of a role was the former Giant Cody Ross in 2010? Nobody was expecting that. What happens in the playoffs was because teams have been scouted for weeks, weeks, and more weeks the key players tend to get shut down and the role players tend to play the biggest roles for the winning teams because if the role players who come and provide the offense allow a game to go far in the playoffs it’s the unexpected it’s the team tendators who show up out of nowhere.
Angel Pagan is carrying the Giants offense: People in the pressbox laugh when I say the Giants Angel Pagan has proved he’s the Most Valuable Player in the National League. By a real definition the term MVP he’s clearly the most valuable player to his team because they were in first place when he got hurt. Then the Giants played 20 games below .500 while he was gone and since his return they’ve climbed from the cellar back to third place.
There isn’t any question how important he is to the team, the best way to explain him is he gives the maximum effort and demands maximum effort and produces a higher level of energy within the clubhouse and on the field amongst their teammates. Who could ever forget last year watching the fast clap, the sunflower seed throwing, all of that stuff that outsiders think of is silly and a little boyish is really good how seriously good athletes manage to alleviate the pressure of playoffs.
It’s to revert to being little boyish, it’s to revert to going out and having fun when you perform and you relax and you let your talent to take over and that’s what Pagan did for the Giants last year and that’s what Hunter Pence did for them last year much like Juan Uribe did for them in 2010.
The way the Giants have played winning seven out of their last nine is their late September test against really good competition unless they had something to lose and I think the Giants will do really well to finish up the season. The Giants will be able to demonstrate a little bit more long ball power in the upcoming series at Yankee Stadium and the Giants pitching staff will probably do a good job in that ball park also because they throw a lot of ground balls.
The most important thing that’s going to come out of that series is the Giants are going to carry away with them forever the memory of being there for Yankees pitcher Mariano Rivera’s last regular season home game and to see what the Yankees have planned for the future Hall of Famer.
Michael Duca does commentary each week for the Giants and A’s for Sportstalk

The Angels trounce the A’s

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By Jerry Feitelberg

It was just one of those nights. The Los Angeles Angels pounded the A’s 12-1. The Angels snapped the A’s five game winning streak behind C.J. Wilson’s pitching. Wilson is at the top of his game as he has now 9-0 in his last 13 starts and is 13-1 since June 14th. He won his seventeenth game of the year going seven innings allowing just one run and giving up just four hits. The Angels supported his effort as they scored twelve times and banged out fifteen hits including two monster home runs.

The A’s Jarrod Parker saw his streak of nineteen consecutive starts without a loss come to an end. Parker’s record is now 11-7. There were no bright spots for the A’s in the game. The only good news was that the Texas Rangers lost and the A’s magic number to clinch the AL West title is now at seven.

Any combination of A’s wins and/or Texas losses will give the A’s the crown for the second year in a row. The game summary follows.

Jarrod Parker got off to a rough start in the first inning. He walked the leadoff hitter on four straight balls. He retired the next two hitters but gave up a single to Josh Hamilton, a double to Mark Trumbo and a another single  to rookie Kole Calhoun that allowed the Angels to get an early 2-0 lead.

The Angels picked up an unearned run in the third inning. With one out and one on, Josh Hamilton hit a sharp line drive to Alberto Callaspo. Callaspo took his eye off the ball and it bounced into center  to put men on at first and third with one out.  The Angels scored on the next play when Mark Trumbo hit into a fielder’s choice that allowed the runner from third to score. Angels lead 3-0.

The Angels sent Parker to the showers in the top of fifth. The Angels scored three runs as Parker gave up four hits and walked a batter before Bob Melvin brought in Jerry Blevins to pitch. Angels now lead 6-0 with men on at first and second with one out. Blevins retired the first batter he faced but the Angels banged out two more hits and scored two more runs before Blevins got the final out of the inning.

The Angels sent ten men to the plate and scored five runs on six hits.  Parker allowed eight runs(one unearned) as he exited the game after just 4 1/3rd inning of work.

The A’s scored a run in the bottom of the sixth. Wilson walked  Josh Donaldson with one out. That was followed by two singles and the A’s now trail 8-1.

The Angels continue to pour it on. They had two two-run home runs in the eighth to make it a 12-1 game. Mike Trout and Mark Trumbo each homered in the inning. Trout’s blast was unbelievable  as it was perhaps the longest home run hit this year at the Coliseum.

Game notes- The A’s still have the second best record in the American league. They are 88-62 and still maintain a six and a half game lead of the Rangers. Sonny Gray will pitch for the A’s Tuesday night and Garrett Richard will go for the Angels. Game time is at 7pm.

Sean Doolittle has been named a finalist for the 2013 Roberto Clemente Award.

Attendance was 14,621.

A’s end regular season versus Texas with sweep

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September 15, 2013

By Pearl Allison Lo

With their biggest win margin of the series, Oakland engineered their first season sweep at Arlington in four years with a 4-1 finale.

The A’s magic number to clinch the American League West is now at seven games.

In this game, it was the big bats were the difference, producing four of the five runs. Josh Donaldson’s home run in the top of the first proved to be the game-
winner.

Oakland wasted no time getting runners on base as Coco Crisp and Chris Young got on
base before Jed Lowrie brought in the game’s first run with a double play. Donaldson followed suit with a home run to double the A’s lead and extend his
hitting streak to 11 games, a career-high.

Texas scored in the first inning as well, when A.J. Pierzynski hit a two-out single to bring in Elvis Andrus and slice the lead back down to one.

Chris Young re-doubled Oakland’s lead when he hit a two-out home run in the top of the third.

The Rangers’ best chance came in the bottom of the sixth with runners at the corner and one out. Texas used three pinch hitters in the inning, but only Jurickson Profar was successful.

The game stayed 3-1 from the third inning until Oakland tacked on two more runs
in the top of the ninth. Brandon Moss came in to pinch-hit and was walked and
Josh Reddick brought them both to home plate with a home run. Reddick went 2-
for-4.

Tommy Milone, who filled in after the A’s hot-pitching Jarrod Parker was scratched
from the game due to illness, pitched 5 innings, while Ranger’s starter Martin
Perez pitched 6.1 innings.

Game notes: Oakland’s Yoenis Cespedes was also scratched from the game due to a sore shoulder. He would have been the designated hitter. It was a franchise first for Texas to go winless in their six-game homestand. The A’s will continue
Monday with a three-game series versus the Los Angeles Angels, who they face six times in the next 10 games.