Tag: texas rangers

Justin Sterner #60 of the Athletics pitches against the Texas Rangers in the ninth inning at Sutter Health Park on April 16, 2026 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

By Jeremiah Salmonson

SACRAMENTO — The Athletics and Rangers met to conclude a four-game series at Sutter Health Park on Thursday afternoon at 12:05 p.m. PST.

The Rangers managed to salvage a series split, defeating the Athletics 9-6 in windy conditions.

It was a turbulent afternoon in Sacramento, and that’s exactly how Jacob Lopez’s day went as he got the start for the A’s.

Lopez, who has been solid so far this season for the A’s, continued to battle walks in his start on Thursday. Lopez entered the game having walked 13 batters in his first three games of the season; he added four more to his total against the Rangers, as he has now walked 17 batters in four starts this year. Even with the walks, Lopez managed to go five innings of two-run, three-hit baseball while striking out five hitters on the day. It was a solid start for Lopez as he continues to battle command issues early this season.

Luis Medina came on in relief for Lopez, pitched the sixth inning, and recorded one out in the seventh. Medina finished going one and a third innings, giving up two runs on two hits while walking one and striking out one.

Scott Barlow was next up for the A’s as he pitched two-thirds of an inning to wrap up the seventh. Barlow gave up a run on one hit, a home run, and walked two batters in his appearance.

Jack Perkins pitched the eighth inning for the A’s and was the sharpest pitcher for them all game. Perkins’ only blemish was a hit batter as he threw a scoreless inning, allowing no walks, hits, or runs.

In the ninth inning, with the A’s having just taken the lead in the bottom of the eighth, Mark Kotsay elected to go with Justin Sterner for the ninth inning. Sterner had a disastrous inning as he allowed four runs on four hits while walking one and striking out one in his inning of relief.

On the offensive side of the ball, the A’s gave themselves a lot of chances all game to put up crooked numbers. The Athletics’ offense tallied 13 hits and four walks but was only able to score six runs in the game.

The scoring came in the third and eighth innings for the A’s as they plated three runs in each of those innings.

In the third inning, the A’s scored for the first time on a two-RBI single from Jacob Wilson that tied the game at the time. Later in that same inning, Carlos Cortes singled home Wilson to give the A’s the lead before getting thrown out in no-man’s-land between first and second base.

The A’s wouldn’t score again until the bottom of the eighth inning, down 5-3 and looking for a spark to get the offense going. The A’s loaded the bases with two outs, and it brought Nick Kurtz to the plate. Kurtz, who has struggled early on this season, hit a wind-aided, bases-clearing, three-RBI double to give the A’s a 6-5 lead heading into the ninth inning. The ball was popped up by Kurtz to what ended up being shallow left field, but the left fielder never had a shot as the wind was blowing it in all types of directions.

Sterner failed to hold the lead, as detailed earlier, and the A’s fell to the Rangers 9-6.

With the loss, the Athletics fell to 10-9 on the season. 

The A’s will stay home to take on Munetaka Murakami and the Chicago White Sox in the first of a three-game series on Friday at 6 p.m. PST. Aaron Civale (2-0, 1.72 ERA) is set to start the game for the A’s as the White Sox send Davis Martin (2-1, 2.50 ERA) to the hill.

Whether you’re pre-gaming with the Kings or celebrating an A’s win, Cyprus Grille at the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena is your downtown go-to.

⚡Craft cocktails? Check.
🔥Game-day bites? Oh yeah.
🏟️Steps from Golden 1 Center? You bet.

Open daily, Cyprus Grille is serving up local flavor with a front-row seat to the action. Stop by before or after the game—or make it your new downtown hangout.

Cyprus Grille—where fans fuel up.

📍Located inside the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena @ 300 J Street

Happy Hour – 4pm-6pm

Show your ticket for additional discounts when dining in. 

Jeffrey Springs #59 of the Athletics pitches against the Texas Rangers in the top of the second inning at Sutter Health Park on April 14, 2026 in Sacramento, California. (Mandatory photo credit: Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

By Jeremiah Salmonson

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Jeffrey Springs has had a great start to the 2026 campaign and is helping propel the Sacramento Athletics’ resurgence of late.

Springs, who carried a 2-0 record into his third start of the season on Tuesday against the Texas Rangers, has been impressing with his stuff so far this year. On Tuesday, it was another impressive outing from the left-hander out of Appalachian State University as the A’s defeated the Rangers 2-1.

Springs went six and a third innings of one-run, three-hit baseball while striking out five and walking two. Springs needed just 90 pitches in his outing, where he was pulled after striking out the first batter of the seventh and left to a nice ovation from the Sutter Health Park faithful.

Juston Sterner took over for Springs with one out in the seventh. Sterner immediately gave up a double but was able to settle down and not allow a run to score. He finished tossing two-thirds of an inning, allowing one hit but no runs while striking out one and walking none.

In the eighth inning, Mark Kotsay gave the ball to Hogan Harris, who had an eventful inning and only lasted two outs. After getting a flyout and a popout, he promptly walked the next two hitters he faced and was lifted from the game. Elvis Alvarado came in to finish the inning on one pitch, getting Jake Burger to line out to left field. All in, Hogan pitched two-thirds of an inning, giving up no runs while walking two.

In the ninth inning, Mark Leiter Jr. came on to close the game for the A’s and was welcomed by a closer intro from the fans at Sutter Health Park. Leiter Jr. dominated the ninth in a one-two-three inning where he struck out two.

The A’s pitching was also aided by two terrific plays in the field, both victimizing Andrew McCutchen. Jacob Wilson made a great sliding play and spinning throw up the middle to rob McCutchen of a base hit in the sixth inning.

“When you are on defense with your pitchers on the mound, you wanna do whatever you can to make the plays to make their innings easier,” Jacob Wilson said after the game. “… being able to make the plays and see your guys fired up in the dugout… I’m excited to be able to do it again tomorrow.”

Denzel Clarke couldn’t let Wilson steal the show on defense, so he naturally had to add to his home run robbery lore. Denzel climbed the wall and took away what appeared to be a home run from Andrew McCutchen in the top of the fourth inning.

The A’s bats did just enough on Tuesday to earn the win in what could be described as a full team win. The Athletics only mustered four hits, but the timely hitting proved to win out in the end. The A’s rally came in the third inning with two outs after the A’s quickly made two outs in the inning. Denzel Clarke doubled, while Shea Langeliers and Nick Kurtz followed with two walks to set the table for Jacob Wilson. Wilson managed to rip a ball through the hole past third to score two runs that proved to be the difference in the game.

With the win, the A’s vaulted back over .500 with a 9-8 record to tie the Rangers for first place in the AL West. On Wednesday, the A’s and Rangers will go back at it in game three of the four-game series. The A’s will send J.T. Ginn (0-0, 3.27 ERA) to the hill, while the Rangers counter with Kumar Rocker (0-1, 4.50 ERA). First pitch is slated for 6:40 on what will be another chilly night in West Sacramento.

Whether you’re pre-gaming with the Kings or celebrating an A’s win, Cyprus Grille at the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena is your downtown go-to.

⚡Craft cocktails? Check.
🔥Game-day bites? Oh yeah.
🏟️Steps from Golden 1 Center? You bet.

Open daily, Cyprus Grille is serving up local flavor with a front-row seat to the action. Stop by before or after the game—or make it your new downtown hangout.

Cyprus Grille—where fans fuel up.

📍Located inside the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena @ 300 J Street

Happy Hour – 4pm-6pm

Show your ticket for additional discounts when dining in. 

Luis Severino #40 of the Athletics pitches against the Texas Rangers in the first inning at Sutter Health Park on April 13, 2026 in Sacramento, California. (Mandatory photo credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

By Jeremiah Salmonson

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Athletics made their triumphant return to Sacramento on Monday night after completing a six-game New York road trip. The A’s made stops in Queens and in the Bronx to face the Yankees and the Mets three games apiece in the frigid New York temperatures. The A’s took two out of three from the Yankees prior to sweeping the Mets to go 5-1 on the trip and improve their record to 8-7 on the season.

The A’s welcomed the Texas Rangers to Sutter Health Park for the beginning of a four-game series on Monday night.

Poor pitching and a lack of offense early doomed the A’s as they fell to the Rangers 8-1 in nine innings.

Luis Severino got the start for the A’s and pitched poorly early on, putting the A’s in an early hole. Severino allowed five of the first six hitters of the game to reach base, including a three-run homer from Jake Burger to put the Rangers up three to nothing in the first inning.

Severino continued to struggle with command and gave up another home run to Burger in the third inning to put the Rangers up 4-0. Severino needed 60 pitches to get through the first three innings, but he calmed down after that and settled in well for the rest of his outing. Severino ended up tossing six innings of four-run, six-hit baseball while walking three and striking out seven.

“I just need to stop walking people,” Severino told the media after his start. “I feel like the first inning, everything happened in the first inning and after that I’m good. I need to be able to handle the first inning. I don’t know why I’m walking people just in the first inning and then after that I’m getting better. I need to figure it out.”

A’s manager Mark Kotsay thought Severino settled in nicely, but the damage done early proved costly.

“He got into the zone with Burger, made a mistake with a fastball over the heart of the plate after walking two guys, which always hurts,” Kotsay said postgame. “We talk about a solo homer, the impact isn’t as big. So for him to settle back in after that first inning and really pitch well, that’s the Sevvy we expect, and I think that’s the one we’re going to see going forward.”

Severino seems more comfortable this season even if the conditions are similar to last season. He has frequently mentioned the lack of a nearby clubhouse as a factor in some of his issues in Sacramento, after which the A’s added a small room this season in between the dugout and the restroom for him to find some mid-start reprieve.

Asked if the room has made it any better for him:

“Yeah, of course. A hundred percent,” Severino said after the game. “You have a little AC machine out there. You get to be there by yourself, you aren’t looking at anybody. So I think that’s helping, being by yourself. [You can] think about what adjustment you can do to go out there and compete.”

Jack Perkins was first out of the bullpen for the A’s in the seventh inning, coming in for Severino. Perkins pitched well in the seventh inning, facing only three batters and striking out two, but trouble found him when he went back out for the eighth inning.

Corey Seager hit a ground-rule double that was close to being caught by Lawrence Butler in right field, and then Perkins struck out Jake Burger. Yet, it was the next at-bat that turned the tide for Perkins. Joc Pederson hit a relatively routine ground ball up the middle to shortstop Jacob Wilson, but Edwin Jimenez did a poor job vacating his spot, and the ball hit him, allowing Pederson to reach and Seager to advance to third base. It proved costly, as Perkins allowed four runs after that and surrendered a total of five hits while walking a batter. He finished with one and two-thirds innings while adding four strikeouts.

After the game, Mark Kotsay voiced his displeasure over that play and a no-call on a check swing that Kyle Higashioka appeared to have offered at.

“Great point [my question about the play] for Perk, he went one, two, three in the first,” Kotsay told me postgame. “One out [when the play happened], we were trying to obviously keep the game at four. He goes out and not only was there bad luck with the ground ball, there was a check swing that Higashioka went on that obviously wasn’t called. Easily, the inning could have gone differently.”

In what was a mostly tough outing for A’s pitchers, Luis Medina shined, allowing nothing but a walk while striking out one in his one and a third innings of work to finish out the game.

“We’re continuing to build him [Medina] up,” Kotsay told me. “This is a kid that we talk about a lot that hasn’t pitched in two years and needs to get out there and touch the mound. I thought for his inning and a third, he did a nice job.”

The A’s bats did little to nothing in the first game home after their East Coast road trip. The A’s tallied only five total hits and one run—a Lawrence Butler solo home run to right field in the eighth inning—and nothing else. Shea Langeliers added two hits in the game to raise his season average to .306 in what has been a hot start for the catcher.

Along with his home run, Lawrence Butler was responsible for some home run robbery in the fifth inning. Corey Seager was Butler’s victim on Monday as he tracked a ball to the short wall in right-center field and brought it back to save Luis Severino from giving up his fifth run of the game.

After the game, Severino was appreciative of Butler’s efforts, albeit in a loss.

“Law made a great play there,” Severino told me after the game. “Now I need to get something nice for him… I need to buy some shoes or something good. But yeah, he did a great play.”

The A’s fell back to .500 on the season at 8-8 with the loss as they prepare to take on the Rangers in game two of the four-game series on Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. PST. Jeffrey Springs (2-0, 1.47 ERA) is slated to go for the A’s, while the Rangers will counter with MacKenzie Gore (2-0, 2.76 ERA).

Whether you’re pre-gaming with the Kings or celebrating an A’s win, Cyprus Grille at the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena is your downtown go-to.

⚡Craft cocktails? Check.
🔥Game-day bites? Oh yeah.
🏟️Steps from Golden 1 Center? You bet.

Open daily, Cyprus Grille is serving up local flavor with a front-row seat to the action. Stop by before or after the game—or make it your new downtown hangout.

Cyprus Grille—where fans fuel up.

📍Located inside the Holiday Inn Sacramento Downtown – Arena @ 300 J Street

Happy Hour – 4pm-6pm

Show your ticket for additional discounts when dining in.