25-15 - Rangers love their mothers, beat A’s 11-3 in finale
The Texas Rangers scored eleven runs while the Oakland Athletics scored three runs.
After playing with their food a little today, costing Andrew Heaney (6 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 9 K) a win on his ledger, the Rangers did indeed complete a series win against Oakland with a bit of a cathartic explosion late.
When this West Coast tour of the AL West ten days ago, Texas was fresh off a disappointing loss to Arizona to conclude a homestand. The road trip opened even worse with a walk-off loss to the Anaheim Angels in a game that the Rangers led 4-1 heading into the 9th.
That ugly loss allowed the Angels to even the score in the division and put Texas in danger of dropping to second place for the first time since April 8. After that, however, with today’s win, the Rangers won each series of this trip with a loss apiece in each and finished the journey 7-3 against their rivals.
In doing so, Texas is now ten games above .500 for the first time since they were 46-36 on June 28, 2019. Ten games in ten days on the road out west and they’ve moved their lead in the AL West to four games over both Anaheim and Houston.
Despite a handful of disappointments delivered almost exclusively by the bullpen — including an attempt to do so today — the Rangers are winning, warts and all, and building a nice lead.
Player of the Game: Robbie Grossman hit a two-run dong to kick off the scoring, doubled, and singled in an insurance run in the eight-run 8th inning to leave him a triple shy of the cycle. Best of all, he wasn’t really tested during his stay in left field today.
Up Next: The Rangers are right back at it at home where they will welcome the NL East leading Braves to Arlington for a series.
RHP Charlie Morton is expected to make the start in the opener for Atlanta whereas the pitcher for Texas has not been announced (though, rumor has it LHP Cody Bradford could start the game for his MLB debut).
The Monday evening first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT and will be aired on BS Southwest.
Source: Lone Star Ball
