Rangers 6, A’s 4:
Oakland sees familiar pattern as Texas sweeps three-game series.
RANGERS 6, A’S 4
ARLINGTON, Texas — What’s that definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
That’s sort of how things are for the A’s at Texas, where each game, Oakland seems to make a key mistake or two, fails to score enough to get any cushion and then sees the bullpen hand over the lead. The script unfolded again Sunday, with Ryan Madson the latest A’s reliever to stumble against the Rangers, who scored three times in the seventh en route to a 6-4 victory, their sixth in a row.
“It’s frustrating that for roughly two-thirds of the game, you have the upper hand and then lose it,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “It just got away from us again at the end.”
The Texas rally was fueled in part by a unfortunate decision by third baseman Trevor Plouffe. With two down and Carlos Gomez at second base, Delino DeShields hit a grounder to third, and with Gomez going full speed and showing no signs of slowing, Plouffe went for the out at first. DeShields, a fast runner, beat the throw, and Gomez scored.
“When I got the ball, I thought I had time to get him with a good throw, and he just beat it. He’s a pretty fast guy,” Plouffe said. “Gomez was aggressive and I was aggressive, too; I thought I was going to get the out at first. He made a good baseball play.”
That made it 4-3, and Melvin lifted starter Kendall Graveman and put in setup man Ryan Madson, who has had a tough time in this ballpark, with two losses, two blown saves and an ERA over 10.00. He promptly gave up a gametying double to Elvis Andrus and a go-ahead single to Nomar Mazara.
Rookie Bobby Wahl yielded a run in the eighth; the A’s bullpen has allowed 10 earned runs in the past three games and absorbed all three losses at Texas. Melvin tried every reliever but long man Josh Smith in the series.
“We still like our guys,” Melvin said. “It was just a bad series for our bullpen . ... We used all our best guys and couldn’t come away with a win.”
Oakland’s offense consists almost exclusively of home runs these days, and so it went Sunday. The A’s got solo homers from Plouffe in the second and Adam Rosales in the fifth and a two-run drive by Matt Joyce in the fifth, all off onetime Oakland starter A.J. Griffin.
“As an offense, when we get a team down like this, we have to keep pounding, scoring runs,” Plouffe said.
The Rangers struck first in something of an unlucky first inning for Graveman. DeShields reached on a groundball single to right and stole second; Graveman’s pitch on the steal was in the dirt and got by catcher Stephen Vogt, who didn’t get to it quickly. By the time he did, DeShields was at third. Andrus followed with a roller to short that ticked off Rosales’ glove for an infield single that sent in DeShields. Then Mazara reached on a grounder past second baseman Jed Lowrie before Graveman got a double-play grounder from Jonathan Lucroy that scored Andrus.
Joyce recorded his first three-hit game since June 24. Vogt reached base three times, with two singles and a walk.
A’s outfielder Khris Davis, batting .139 with 31 strikeouts in his past 20 games, got the day off.