RANGERS KNOCK A’S FROM PLAYOFF POSITION
OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s fell out of the American League’s No. 2 wild-card spot after a 5-2 loss to the Texas Rangers in front of 14,952 fans on Friday night.
Oakland led 2-0 and was riding a strong start from Daniel Mengden before the Rangers lit up the righthander and the A’s offense went cold. The A’s had held the second wild-card position for 21 consecutive days, but slipped behind the Tampa Bay Rays, who beat Toronto 3-1 to improve to 59-47.
Oakland, a loser in five of its past six games, has dropped three in a row for the first time in nearly two months. The A’s fell to 5847, leaving them a halfgame back of Tampa.
While an A’s starter opened strong then fizzled for the second straight night, the team’s big boppers continued to struggle. Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Khris Davis were 0 for 10 with seven strikeouts and a double-play ball.
The three are now batting a combined .183 with one home run, 10 RBIs and 39 strikeouts over the team’s past nine games.
Down by three runs, the A’s made a ninth-inning push when Mark Canha doubled and Ramon Laureano walked to lead off against reliever Chris Martin. But Davis struck out for the fourth time, and Martin retired the next two hitters to end the game.
The A’s took a 1-0 lead on an unearned run in the first inning but squandered a chance to do much more. Back-to-back errors by Rangers shortstop Danny Santana and a walk to Olson loaded the basis with no outs.
Laureano drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to left, but Texas starter Lance Lynn, who threw 34 pitches in the inning, danced around further trouble by striking out Canha and Davis.
Semien got the A’s started again with a leadoff single in the third. He moved to second when Olson walked and scored on a single to left by Canha for a 2-0 Oakland lead.
Texas didn’t have a baserunner through three innings, but strung together three two-out hits in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead.
Shin-Soo Choo walked to lead off the fourth. After Mengden retired the next two batters, Nomar Mazara ripped a line drive through second baseman Jurickson Profar for a double, with Choo barely beating Semien’s relay to the plate for the Rangers’ first run.
Willie Calhoun then sliced a double down the left-field line, scoring Mazara to knot the score. Asdrubal Cabrera sent a ground-ball single through the right side of the infield and Calhoun scored.
Mengden was gone after walking two batters with one out in the sixth, and reliever Blake Treinen immediately gave up an RBI single to Cabrera that made it 4-2.
Calhoun added to the Texas lead with a leadoff homer in the eighth off Ryan Buchter.