Rangers Fall To Athletics Again
For the second time in three days, it was the pregame drama that overshadowed the Texas Rangers, who lost to the Oakland Athletics 7-2 on Wednesday night at Globe Life Field.
The Rangers fired team president Jon Daniels and put general manager Chris Young in charge of all baseball operations. The move, made by the team’s principal owner Ray Davis, came two days after Daniels and Young fired manager Chris Woodward and elevated third-base coach Tony Beasley to interim manager.
Davis told the media on Wednesday that Young would not address the team about the move until the road trip later this week. Instead, they focused on preparation for the last two games of the series.
“We know we had a game to play,” Beasley said. “Today we didn’t want to disrupt routines. We came to prepare to go play a game tonight. We lost, we got beat, and we’re not going to blame it on anything.”
But unlike Monday, where Texas (52-65) fired Woodward and it won 2-1, the Rangers were unable to overcome two home runs by Athletics (43-75) catcher Sean Murphy, who hit one in the second game of the series on Tuesday, a 5-1 Athletics victory.
Murphy’s first home run was a solo shot off Rangers starter Cole Ragans in the first inning. After that, Ragans retired seven straight before giving up a walk to Athletics first baseman David MacKinnon to lead off the fourth inning. Murphy then came to the plate and pulled a Ragans offering into the Rangers’ bullpen in right-center field to give them a 3-1 lead.
It was Murphy’s first multi-home run game of 2022.
Other than the home runs, Ragans (0-2) had a solid outing, pitching five innings and throwing 83 pitches. He gave up just four hits and one walk, while striking out three. But he still left the game in line for the loss.
Murphy’s two blasts turned out to be more than enough to win the game for Oakland, but the Athletics added two more runs in the top of the eighth. Murphy, naturally, scored one of them, scoring from second on a RBI hit by Chad Pinder. Murphy should have been out at home, but Rangers catcher Meibrys Viloria was unable to hang on to the baseball.
Keller, Texas, native and Athletics rookie Shea Langeliers hit his first MLB home run in the top of the eighth, a two-run shot to right field.
All of that made it an easy win for Athletics starter Adam Oller (2-5), who gave up just five hits and a run in six innings, while walking one and striking out four.
The Rangers’ first run came in the bottom of the first, as Corey Seager singled to get on base and Adolis García laced an RBI double down the left-field line to score Seager from second, where he advanced after a wild pitch.
Meanwhile, Joe Barlow returned to the Rangers pitching staff after missing 31 games with a right index finger blister. The closer to start the season, he came on to pitch a scoreless sixth in his first appearance since going on the injured list. He did load the bases but struck out Athletics rookie Shea Langeliers to end the threat.
Infielder Mark Mathias made his Rangers debut in the bottom of the ninth after his recall from Triple-A Round Rock earlier this week. He was acquired from Milwaukee in the Matt Bush trade. He doubled to drive in Viloria, who had walked earlier.
The Athletics also released former Rangers shortstop Elvis Andrus on Wednesday.
The Rangers end the series and the homestand with the Athletics at 1:05 p.m. on Thursday as Rangers starter Dane Dunning (2-6, 4.12) faces Athletics left-hander Zach Logue (3-6, 5.49). After that, the Rangers start a six-game road trip in Minnesota on Friday.
You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard
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