OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Adolis Garcia doubled off pinch-runner Eli White in the top of the ninth inning, Nathaniel Lowe followed with a two-run homer as the Texas Rangers defeated Texas on Thursday. -1 to the Oakland Athletics.
Garcia and Kole Calhoun each had two hits as the Rangers won their second straight game after losing three in a row on their 10-game road trip. Texas also scored a run on Andy Ibanez’s bases-loaded walk.
“We got it done in the ninth,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “This place is a tough place to score runs, but I loved the at-bats Adolis had. I’m glad we made it in the end.”
Chad Pinder had two hits for Oakland. The A’s have lost 12 of their last 14 at home.
The Rangers scored at the end of the A’s bullpen after starters Martín Pérez and Frankie Montas held off both offenses.
Jonah Heim started the game-winning play off Lou Trivino (1-3) with a single up the middle just past the glove of second baseman Sheldon Neuse. After White replaced Heim, Garcia hit a strong double into the left-field corner.
“It’s been really good, but I was just trying to make contact,” Garcia said through an interpreter. “I saw the pitch I was looking for, made good contact with it.”
Lowe, who was funk 10-for-78 (.128), then hit his third home run of the season.
Pérez pitched seven solid innings on four-hit ball, but went in a no-decision in his 200th career start.
Pérez’s streak of 25 consecutive scoreless innings on the road ended in the fourth with a changeup that bounced under catcher Heim’s glove, allowing Pinder to score from third. Pinder singled early in the inning and moved to third on Sean Murphy’s double.
“I was pitching like I’ve been pitching,” Perez said. “I was able to keep the game tight. My team picked me up in the ninth inning, so that was great for me.”
Montas had 11 strikeouts in seven solid innings. He allowed three hits and one unearned run, which came after a fielding error by shortstop Elvis Andrus.
Matt Bush (2-1) retired three batters to win. Joe Barlow drew a ninth-inning walk for his eighth save.
The A’s missed a chance in the seventh when leadoff hitter Christian Bethancourt was ruled out for interference. Bethancourt touched the first base line and moved to second when Pérez’s pitch to first baseman Lowe slid down the line. The umpires quickly made the decision, and A’s manager Mark Kotsay came out to argue. Andrus, the next batter, doubled.
“The umpire, in his opinion, (said) that Bethancourt did not have both feet on the box running toward first base,” Kotsay said. “The storyline for me was more about the play itself and the pitch. I was so far off the line or in foul territory that, in my opinion, the pitch was uncatchable.”
The Rangers benefited from the call, but Woodward isn’t a fan of the rule.
“It was a good play by Bethancourt, the bunt,” Woodward said. “I know the rule, but I don’t love it.”
MESSAGE FROM PEREZ TO UVALDE
Perez had a handwritten note on the brim of his cap that read: 4 Uvalde, a reference to the shooting at a Texas school earlier this week that killed 19 students and two teachers.
“It’s time for the government to do something,” said Pérez, who has children of his own. “It’s happening over and over and over and no one is doing anything. It’s only happening in this country. In my country, growing up in Venezuela, it is not a safe country. So coming here and feeling that way too, scared… it’s too bad. What happened to those children is bad and we are sorry. Every time he went out he said: ‘This is for the city’”.
EXTRA RULES
Montas moved into a tie with Catfish Hunter for third on the A’s roster with nine games with 10 or more strikeouts. Vida Blue holds the franchise record with 21. … Coliseum attendance was 3,203. It is the fifth time this season that the crowd has been less than 3,300.
COACHES ROOM
Rangers: RHP Jose Leclerc allowed one run in two innings of his first rehab start with Double-A Frisco. Leclerc began the season on the 60-day Disabled List after undergoing elbow surgery in March 2021.
UNTIL NEXT TIME
A’s LHP Cole Irvin (2-2, 2.94 ERA) is making his second start since coming off the disabled list. Irvin beat Texas in April for Oakland’s only victory in that three-game series. Rangers RHP Jon Gray (1-2, 5.14 ERA) has allowed 10 runs in the first inning of his six starts this season.
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