OAKLAND, Calif. _ Sean Manaea pitched brilliantly in his first start of the season but fell victim to poor run support. The Oakland A's offense made sure not to let that happen his second time out.
The A's broke out the bats Wednesday night against the Texas Rangers, putting together a four-run fourth inning to provide Manaea with plenty of support as he turned in another dominant performance.
Manaea continued to look like the best pitcher on the staff, allowing just one run on three hits with a walk and four strikes as he matched a career-high eight innings of work in a 6-2 victory over Texas in front of another extremely small crowd of 7,908 fans at the Coliseum.
Manaea was only at 93 pitches after eight innings, but manager Bob Melvin turned to Yusmeiro Petit to begin the ninth and close out the game.
The left-hander is the only A's starter to complete six innings pitched through the first seven games of the season, having done so twice now in his first two starts.
After going 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position the night before, Melvin seemingly threw out a challenge to his hitters by saying the team has yet to perform up to its capabilities this season. The A's responded.
Bruce Maxwell got things started early in the second with a double to bring home Matt Chapman to give the A's an early 1-0 lead. It was the first time this season the A's had scored inside the first three innings of a game.
The A's really broke it open in the fourth. Having already scored a pair of runs in the inning after loading the bases with no outs, Jed Lowrie delivered the big blow with a two-run single to center field to put Oakland ahead 5-0.
