Late homers lifts A’s over Rangers

That’s a fun way to end a road game

The A’s were locked in a pitching duel for the majority of Wednesday night’s contest against the Rangers. This game seemed destined for extra innings but a massive ninth inning saw six A’s runs cross home plate, breaking this game open and helping the A’s win their second of three against Texas with the series finale set for tomorrow afternoon.

Starting pitchers Luis Severino and Nathan Eovaldi got the starts for their respective clubs tonight, facing each other for the first time this year. The right-handers entered this game both experiencing strong starts to their season and both starters kept up their strong starts tonight as they tried matching or besting each other for the first half of the game.

Eovaldi was the first to blink. Two Athletics batters reached base and were on the corners when shortstop Jacob Wilson came to the plate looking to give the team the lead. He managed to do just that without swinging the bat and without getting the ball out of the infield, dropping down a perfect bunt base hit that brought home the game’s first run:

Left fielder Tyler Soderstrom grounded into an inning-ending double play to end the rally, leaving some meat on the bones against Eovaldi.

That would come back to haunt the team just an inning later. After setting the first six Rangers batters down Texas rallied against Severino in the third. A well-timed strikeout saved any damage from being done against the veteran righty but Texas was starting to get the barrel to the ball and working the counts. They’d finally break through for a game-tying run in the next inning off a 2-out RBI single from Adolis Garcia. the only run Severino would allow tonight.

From there the pitching duel between the two division rivals continued. Severino pitched one more inning and danced around some more threats but didn’t yield anything damaging. He finished the day at 93 pitches and now has a 3.30 ERA on the season through his first seven starts. Righties Justin Sterner and Grant Holman combined for three more shutout innings. Eovaldi would one-up Severino by pitching six full frames before making way for the bullpen.

Now into each other’s ‘pens with three innings to go, some late-game heroics were coming for one team or the other. Tonight that team would be the A’s. Down to their final inning before heading to extras the A’s got to work. Soderstrom led off the inning with a single and Brent Rooker followed that with a towering 2-run blast to break the tie and give the Green & Gold the lead:

That was Rook’s eighth long ball of the season but the A’s weren’t done there. Not even close. A Shea Langeliers single and back-to-back walks to Luis Urias and JJ Bleday loaded the bases. With two outs Lawrence Butler busted this game wide open with a grand slam, the first of his career:

That was his fifth home run of the season and that blast ended any chance the Rangers had at coming back in the bottom half of the frame. What was a 1-1 pitcher’s duel turned into a 7-1 blowout in the span of 20 minutes. No need to waste the closer. Righty Tyler Ferguson finished off the Rangers with a quick 1-2-3 ninth to secure the win, finishing it off with a strikeout and sending the home team’s fans home stunned.

What an ending! Six runs in one inning? In the ninth? in a tied game?! If you watched this game you had no idea that outburst was coming. The A’s managed to collect 11 hits tonight and four of those came in the final inning alone. The club didn’t have any answer for Nathan Eovaldi but the Rangers didn’t have much going for them against Luis Severino either. The A’s just outlasted their counterparts and they get the win because of it.

The win guarantees the Athletics at least a series split with their division rivals. They’re now back to one game over .500, finishing the month of April with a winning record and in a tie with these Rangers for third place in the AL West, just 2.5 games behind the first-place Seattle Mariners. The A’s will look for the series win tomorrow afternoon when they wrap up this Rangers series. Going for the Green & Gold will be lefty Jeffrey Springs, who will be looking to get off to a good start tomorrow and finally start to turn his season around. Texas will counter with rotation leader Tyler Mahle, who is currently second in all of baseball with a 1.14 ERA through his first six starts this season. Another pitcher’s duel on tap, perhaps?