The Oakland A’s and Texas Rangers took this bitter series into an extra-inning battle on Saturday in Arlington, Texas.
The A’s are struggling with runners in scoring position, but not Jed Lowrie. His .397 average with runners in scoring position came in handy with the game in the 11th inning when he singled home designated runner Elvis Andrus and a wild pitch scored Matt Olson to give the A’s a 6-4 lead. Stephen Piscotty created some breathing room with a two-run blast to secure the A’s 8-4 win.
The Rangers greeted James Kaprielian with back-to-back home runs from All-Star Adolis Garcia and Home Run Derby participant Joey Gallo to give the Rangers an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. The two home runs added to the five collective home runs the pair have hit off Kaprielian in his three starts against the Rangers.
The A’s answered with back-to-back home runs of their own. Sean Murphy and Seth Brown hit a pair the second inning to tie the game. Brown’s home run traveled 472 feet, the A’s longest-hit home run since Matt Olson hit a home run 475 feet in 2018.
The A’s collected five hits off Rangers starter Mike Foltynewicz, the first three were solo home runs. Lowrie’s home run in the fourth gave the A’s a 3-2 lead.
Brown and Lowrie also doubled to lead off the sixth and seventh innings, respectively. Brown was stranded on third after Skye Bolt advanced him on a fly out, but Tony Kemp popped and Ramón Laureano flew out.
Lowrie was stranded after recording his 18th double of the season, against Foltynewicz. With one out and Rangers reliever Taylor Hearn in, Brown swung in a 3-0 count and made hard contact, but flew out center in the unproductive inning.
The A’s stranded two more runners in the eighth after Kemp was hit by a pitch and Laureano singled up the middle. But Andrus hit into a double play, moving Kemp to third, but Olson struck out to strand him. The A’s went 0 for 8 with runners in scoring position.
Kaprielian departed after five innings, his four walks allowed an indication of his imperfect command. But Kaprielian worked through traffic; those two home runs were the only Rangers that crossed home. Kaprielian and the A’s pitched around Gallo after his home run — Kaprielian got Gallo to hit into a 3-5-3 double play before his exit.
Jake Diekman issued walks to left-handers Nate Lowe and Gallo and surrendered the game-tying single to former Athletic Jonah Heim. Lou Trivino took over with runners on the corners and one out in the eighth, struck out Andy Ibanez and induced a groundout from Isiah Kiner-Falefa to keep the game tied heading into the ninth.
Trivino notched two big strikeouts for a scoreless ninth after issuing a leadoff walk to Jason Martin and a sacrifice bunt advanced him into scoring position as the winning run.
In extras, the A’s scratched a run across on Laureano’s infield hit, scoring designated runner Murphy from third base. Prior to, Stephen Piscotty reached first on an error and Skye Bolt put down a sacrifice bunt that did not score a run, but advanced both runners. Jacob Wilson, pinch hitting for Kemp in his first big league at-bat, popped out on the first fastball he saw.
The Rangers tied it up again in the bottom of the inning against J.B. Wendelken. Garcia advanced the runner at second and the A’s intentionally walked Gallo. Heim reached first on Wilson’s error at second, his glove flip to Andrus at second for the force out just a half-second late, scoring the run from third anyway.
