A’s get game-winning run to the plate, but fall short in loss to Texas Rangers

OAKLAND — The Oakland A’s barley squeezed out a split in their road trip to Texas last week. Their struggles against the Rangers continued with a 5-4 loss to their American League West foe on Tuesday night in front of a crowd of 4,739 at a full capacity Coliseum.

With the A’s loss and the Houston Astros’ loss, the A’s also failed to gain ground in the division and move to 15-16 against the American League West — a division record not representative of their 47-34 overall record at the season’s half-way point.

With a trip to Texas to play the Rangers and Astros after this home stand against the Rangers and mighty Boston Red Sox this weekend, these next series will be crucial in the A’s division positioning heading into the second half.

James Kaprielian gives no free passes: Kaprielian was on early, striking out five of the first six batters he faced. But the Rangers started to generate hard contact a second time through the order. Having faced the Rangers in his last start — allowing two runs over six innings — Kaprielian made a minor adjustment in his second go. He threw his two-seamer 14 times. He’d thrown it 16 times total over his last nine starts, according to Statcast.

“First two innings we started throwing the two-seam,” Kaprielian said. “The two-seam has been a really good pitch for me and we haven’t been throwing that. Being able to throw that to lefties and being able to throw it in to righties, getting bad contact swings those first two innings and getting ahead of that was pretty effective.”

Kaprielian’s command was near perfect his first time through the Rangers order, but then he started to fall behind in counts when throwing his off-speed stuff.

“My command was good, timing good and rhythm was good, there was life,” he said. “And then we got away from that a little bit, and I have to do a better job of keeping that control and staying in attack mode with the fastball.”

Joey Gallo burned him. Twice, on two solo home runs. The second one on a 3-1 fastball.

“I don’t have to give him that pitch, and I did,” Kaprielian said. “If I’m able to throw my changeup there, he might spit on it and not take that swing because he’s looking for the fastball and do damage with it and that’s what he did tonight and got me. I think I need to do a better job of being able to execute a better pitch there with conviction, and I paid the price with it tonight.”

Despite costly pitches to Gallo, Kaprielian mitigated the damage in the later innings. He went five with three runs allowed with six strikeouts. Most notably, he didn’t issue a walk for the first time in his big league tenure. Something Kaprielian takes pride in. But the Rangers made him work, ticking his pitch count up to 105 — the most he’d thrown at the big league level. After injuries, including Tommy John surgery, the A’s had been cautious with his workload.

“They made him work. Made him throw a lot of pitches,” manager Bob Melvin said. “I’m kind of surprised he had the pitches to get through six, but he did. Just a couple of pitches to Gallo, really, ended his day.”

A near comeback: Domingo Acevedo gave up a two-run home run to Nick Solak off the bat at 99 mph in the ninth inning to give the Rangers a 5-2 lead heading into the final half inning. But the A’s showed comeback fight.

Jed Lowrie and Mitch Moreland hit a pair of home runs to put the A’s within walk-off distance in the bottom of the ninth. Elvis Andrus represented the game-tying run after singling up the middle and Chad Pinder the winning run at the plate with two outs, but Pinder popped out on the first pitch to end the game.

“We always feel like we have a chance in the last inning,” Melvin said. “Unfortunately we give up a run the inning before. Miles per hour, you don’t see many go out less than 100mph in right field here. Ball carried and sliced down the line. But we came back and scored a few runs, just one hit short.”

Matt Chapman gave the A’s an early 1-0 lead with his 11th home run of the season off Rangers right-handed starter Mike Foltynewicz, a solo one in the first inning to extend his hit streak to a career-high and league-high 16 games. Chapman is batting .323 with 15 runs, four doubles, a triple and six home runs during the streak. A far cry from the .203 average he carried in April and May.

“I think he’s getting more comfortable with his hips and mechanics,” Melvin said. “The ball is traveling a lot farther at times. Even his batting practice seems a lot better. He’s building up strength and using his legs a lot more. He’s gotten some hits in the last couple weeks or so and is starting to drive the ball. It starts with his lower half.”

Other than that, the A’s managed just four hits off Foltynewicz despite seeing him for a second time in a matter of one week.

J.B. Wendelken pitched a scoreless inning with an intentional walk to Gallo in his return from the injured list and first appearance since May 1.