A’s finish four-game sweep of Rangers

Bay Area News Group/tns The Oakland A’s Matt Chapman hit a home run and two triples to help the A’s to a 7-6 victory and a four-game sweep of the Texas Rangers on Thursday night in Arlington, Texas.

theme going on. He’s been really good at the Oakland Coliseum, with an ERA of 0.80, but entered the night with a 5.92 ERA on the road.

The Rangers had Cahill on the ropes early, scoring three runs and making him throw 40 pitches through the first two innings. Cahill never seemed to have command of his pitches, walking three batters and hitting another, but he gutted out five innings as he allowed five runs on seven hits and earned the win.

Emilio Pagan, Lou Trivino, Jeurys Familia, and Blake Treinen shut the door in the final four innings.

Treinen worked his third night in a row and turned in a scoreless ninth for his 27th save of the year.

The A’s are now 27-7 since June 16 as they’ve won six in a row and 6-1 since returning from the All-star break.

Bartolo Colon was denied history by the A’s, picking up the loss to remain tied with Dennis Martinez for most wins in MLB history by a latin-born player at 245.

Brewers 7, Giants 5 SAN FRANCISCO – Mark Melancon followed up his blown save in Oakland on Sunday with a disastrous eighth inning, adding to the ire of Giants fans who regret the four-year, $62 million contract he signed with the club in 2017.

Melancon coughed up two earned runs on four singles and a walk in the eighth, the decisive inning in a loss to Milwaukee.

But the Giants reliever ran into a bit of hard luck in his first outing since Sunday’s loss to the A’s. Christian Yelich got the rally started, legging out an infield single after a grounder off his bat took a high hop and caught first baseman Austin Slater in the chest and neck area. After that, Travis Shaw, Ryan Braun and Erik Kratz strung together consecutive singles off the right-hander, bringing in a pair of runs that broke a 2-2 tie.

Chris Stratton didn’t fair any better in his first appearance since he got recalled from Triple-a Sacramento earlier in the day. Stratton allowed the Brewers to break the game wide open in the ninth by giving up three earned runs on three hits, including a home run to Shaw.

The Giants mounted a comeback effort in the eighth, scoring a run before Hunter Pence struck out with runners at the corners to end the rally. They added two more runs in the ninth. Pence also grounded into a double play in the second with none out and the bases loaded, scoring a run but hindering the Giants chances of putting a crooked number on the scoreboard.

The loss spoiled another quality start from rookie righthander Dereck Rodriguez Rodriguez surrendered two earned runs off five hits in six innings of work, making him 3-0 with a 2.25 ERA over his last seven starts.