The A’s ended their series with the Rangers with a loss, ending the season matchup with a sweep to our rivals at home with a 9-6 defeat. On to St. Louis.
Texas jumped out to a quick lead against A’s starter JT Ginn. Rangers DH Joc Pederson put his squad out in front early with a 2-run home run to right field. The Rangers would add on another in the second inning thanks to another home run, this one a solo blast off the bat of Rangers third baseman Josh Jung. Ginn would go on to pitch six full innings
this afternoon, allowing five runs on a hot day where the ball was flying. Not an easy task but he powered through and saved the bullpen from an extended day.
Those early runs would be plenty for Rangers ace Jacob deGrom this afternoon. We got a vintage performance from the future Hall of Famer as he fired off five innings of shutout ball, allowing just two hits during his outing. The club could have kept riding the hot hand but the Rangers kept adding on and on against the A’s and by that time it was 5-0. They gave it to their bullpen to finish the game off with four innings to go. Big mistake there.
For the first couple innings they held, but the Athletics couldn’t be held down forever. Now facing an 8-0 deficit in the bottom of the eighth the A’s got to work. Back-to-back-to-back singles loaded the bases for shortstop Jacob Wilson, and he delivered the hit that opened the floodgates with a two-run bloop double:
Wilson moved to third on an RBI groundout from Brent Rooker, and then crossed home plate on an RBI double from Tyler Soderstrom. Another RBI double from Carlos Cortes closed the scoring for the A’s but they had plated five runs and made this a ballgame.
It would just be too little too late however. Texas scored an insurance run in the ninth, and A’s got one back in the bottom half off an RBI double from Lawrence Butler, but Wilson couldn’t keep the line going and he grounded out to end this game and suffer the series sweep.
It was certainly a tough day to be a pitcher in Sacramento this afternoon. Ginn got touched up and all three relievers gave up gave up at least one run as well, which ended up being the difference in the end. The offense just took too long to wake up, but that’s what happens when you face a generational talent like Jacob deGrom. Brush this one off, heads down and get ready for the next series.
That begins tomorrow morning bright and early with an 11:15 start time. The club travels to St. Louis to take on the Cardinals for the first of three games. The A’s plan to have rookie Luis Morales take the ball for them to get the series started while the Cardinals will turn to former A’s ace Sonny Gray. A mix of past and present on tap for tomorrow’s contest!
