A’s storm back again to defeat Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — You had to know this was coming, right?

For the second straight night, the A’s found themselves in an early deficit, this time down four runs after six innings. For the second straight night, they came back to crush the Rangers’ hearts, this time with a 6-5 victory to make it five in a row.

Khris Davis was responsible for the anguish felt by fans at Globe Life Park yet again. After homering Tuesday night in the 10th to put the A’s (60-43) ahead to complete a wacky comeback, Davis again delivered a huge blow. Down to his last strike with two outs in the ninth against Jose Leclerc, Davis smashed a 2-2 fastball into the seats in right field to put the A’s ahead by a run and silence the entire the park to the point where you could hear a pin drop.

The A’s slugger may never want to leave Texas. The heroic homer was his second of the night, as he also delivered in the seventh by crushing a 0-1 slider from Corey Gearrin well up the grass beyond the centerfield wall for a three-run homer that put the A’s within a run and brought the fans at Globe Life Park a feeling of unease.

It was Davis’ sixth straight games with a home run against the Rangers, and his sixth home run in the past four games to put him at 26 for the season. The four straight games with a home run are a career high for Davis.

Edwin Jackson’s quest for his 100th career win will have to wait another start. The right-hander failed to complete five innings for the first time in his six starts with the A’s, allowing five runs on seven hits and two walks with four strikeouts over just 41/3 innings of work.

The fastball velocity was still there, sitting anywhere from 92-96 mph throughout the start. But on a hot Texas night where the game-time temperature at first pitch was 100 degrees, Jackson didn’t seem to get much movement on his offspeed pitches as he normally does.

Jackson’s undoing came in the second. He threw 32 pitches in the inning, starting out by walking the first two batters he faced before allowing a three-run homer to Robinson Chirinos to put the Rangers (42-61) ahead by two runs at the time.