Fiers, Olson lift Athletics past Rangers
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Matt Olson homered to back Mike Fiers' first win of the season and the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers 6-4 on Thursday for their sixth straight victory and a series sweep.
Khris Davis added a two-run single, Mark Canha had an RBI single and Stephen Piscotty a sacrifice fly as the balanced, first-place A's kept rolling at the right time with the rival Houston Astros coming to town next. Anderson Tejeda hit a two-run homer in his major league debut, chasing Fiers (1-0) in the seventh inning and pulling the Rangers within 5-4. Oakland's Sean Murphy countered with an RBI single in the bottom of the inning.
Yusmeiro Petit escaped a bases-loaded jam in the top of the eighth, and Liam Hendriks finished for his fourth save.
Fiers didn't allow a hit until Elvis Andrus singled leading off the fourth. Todd Frazier homered in the sixth for Texas, which also got Tejeda's RBI single an inning before. Tejeda hadn't played above Class A in the minor leagues prior to Thursday.
Fiers won't line up against his former team after he was the whistleblower in the Astros' sign-stealing scandal when he revealed the scam to The Athletic in November.
Houston would have played its first road game of the season at Oakland in late March before this season was delayed by the coronavirus.
“It seems like two years ago now that that actually happened with all that has been going on," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "This was a year that probably they would have gotten a hard time from the fans, and I don't know that our cutouts will have a whole lot to say about that.”
Rangers lefty Mike Minor (0-3) struck out six over five innings but was tagged for five runs and four hits.
Texas concluded a six-game Bay Area stop at 1-5.