Three home runs not enough as Athletics tie Rangers

Tough day for the pitching

Oakland blew a late lead in this one but at least didn’t give up the lead as they tied the Texas Rangers 7-7 in nine innings.

It was a bullpen day on the pitching side of things as reliever Tyler Ferguson got the ball to start today’s contest. Texas threatened right away but Ferguson kept them off the board with a little help from his catcher as Shea Langeliers threw out a base stealer at second. He had one more scoreless inning to end his day after only two frames.

The A’s got the scoring started in this one. Outfielder Miguel Andujar continued his hot spring with his fifth home run, this one a 2-run blast to left:

Manager Mark Kotsay was just asked who he thought exceeded expectations this spring and Andujar’s name came up. It would be great for this team if the former top prospect can keep this up going into the regular season.

After Ferguson came Dany Jiménez and it was clear he didn’t have it today. Jiménez walked the first four batters he faced, cutting the lead in half with the bases still loaded and no outs. He did manage to get a strikeout before getting the hook, and luckily no other runs crossed the plate that inning as Billy Sullivan kept the damage to a minimum.

At least for that inning. Texas tied this game the next inning thanks to a sac fly off Lucas Erceg. At least for him it was unearned after a Darrel Hernaiz error helped lead to it.

The A’s came back in a big way though. With two on and one out in the sixth inning, Brent Rooker stepped up to the plate and did damage:

That was just his second home run of the spring. We’re all wondering what Rooker will do in his follow up campaign to last year’s All-Star season.

Oakland added on an insurance run in the eighth courtesy of a JJ Bleday home run, who led off the eighth with his second of the spring. It would end up being a very important run.

With a 4-run lead, the pitching staff just needed to get through the next few innings without giving it up. Mason Miller had a clean inning of work but rookies Domingo Robles and Tyler Baum each gave up a couple runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie this game back up again. It wasn’t entirely on them as another error allowed Texas to get those final two runs.

Oakland scored a go-ahead run in the ninth when Abraham Toro scored on a balk to give the team the late lead once again. And again the Rangers got the run right back in the bottom half of the frame. They almost scored the winning run as well but the runner was thrown out at the plate to preserve the tie.

Bit of a roller coaster today. Three home runs is encouraging but three errors is concerning. The fact that two came from Hernaiz doesn’t help his chances of breaking camp with the club. Maybe today didn’t hurt his chances all that much but only Kotsay knows.

The club is right back at it tomorrow afternoon against the Cubs. It’ll be righty Paul Blackburn against Adbert Alzolay. First pitch is at 1:05 tomorrow.