ARLINGTON, Texas _ The Texas Rangers finished off their homestand with an emphatic dud Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Park.
The Oakland Athletics' 9-8 win shined a light on the biggest issue facing the Rangers at the moment. What do they do about Drew Smyly and Shelby Miller?
Smyly started his ninth start and for seventh time he allowed at least four earned runs. On Sunday, the A's led 5-0 before Smyly left the game after just three innings.
Matt Olson's two-run homer was part of a three-run second for Oakland. It came on the first pitch after Smyly was hit in the left knee by a line drive off the bat of Stephen Piscotty. Khris Davis' two-run homer in the third made it 5-0. Smyly allowed five runs on six hits and two walks. In his last 11 1/3 innings, he's allowed 19 earned runs on 22 hits and seven walks.
Miller didn't fare any better. Marcus Semien's two-run double helped stretch Oakland's lead to 8-0. A's starter Frankie Montas held Texas to three runs (two earned) on seven hits in six innings.
The loss put a slight damper on the Rangers' 7-4 homestand.
The game, which was delayed 65 minutes because of a passing thunderstorm, finally started at 3:10 p.m. Smyly retired the first four batters before taking the line drive off his knee. He resumed pitching after briefly being checked out by trainers.
Texas opens a seven-game road trip with four in Boston beginning Monday night. The trip concludes with three in Cincinnati on Friday.
Rougned Odor's two-run single in the fourth put Texas on the board. Asdrubal Cabrera's homered in the sixth and doubled in a run in the sixth and doubled in a run in the eighth. Odor's RBI double pulled Texas to within 8-5 in the eighth. He later stole home to cut the deficit to two.
The A's added a run in the ninth against Jose Leclerc to push their lead back to three.
Texas, which had 15 hits, scored two runs and had the go-ahead run at on first in Odor with two outs in the ninth, but Blake Treinen got Ronald Guzman to fly out to center to preserve the win for Oakland.
