Rangers steal 4-2 victory late

Alex Wood’s best start of the season is clouded by an eighth inning three-run home run

The A’s turned in a really backwards effort on Tuesday: Alex Wood was magnificent, and their bullpen conceded a late lead.

Through the first 7.2 innings of the game it looked like the A’s were on their way to an impressive shutout with Wood getting his second victory of the season. Instead, Corey Seager had other plans. He turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead with one swing of the bat depositing a ball into the right center stands off Lucas Erceg. In the end, the A’s lost 4-2 in a game they let slip right through their hands with their offense falling flat.

The A’s struck first blood in the second inning after lead off back-to-back singles by J.D. Davis and Abraham Toro. A sacrifice fly moved Davis to third, and another action packed sacrifice fly brought him home. Darell Hernaiz’ poke to left was caught with a diving snag by Ezequiel Duran, and Duran's throw home nailed Davis on the back of the helmet on the fly.

While every single A’s fan waited for Wood to spoil his early lead, credit him on defying those odds and cashing in his best performance to date as an Athletic. Wood threw lots of pitches in the first, but cruised through the rest of the game harmless. He hit all his spots, pitched to some soft contact, and most importantly, threw lots of strikes.

The A’s manufactured a second run in the bottom of the fifth. JJ Bleday reached on an error thanks to another Duran extravaganza in left when he dropped a shallow fly ball, and Brett Harris followed it up dunking a perfectly placed single into right center to put runners at the corner. Esteury Ruiz then continued Tuesdays sacrifice fly theme with their third of the game to give the A’s a 2-0 lead.

Wood worked perhaps his best inning for his last in the sixth. In ten pitches he got Marcus Semien to lineout, Seager to popout and Nathaniel Lowe to strikeout to end his day.

Wood went six scoreless innings while allowing just two hits and striking out three. It was a nice rebound from a tough last start against the Pittsburgh Pirates and a brutal beginning of the season, in general. It’s also his first start going six innings since August 14, 2022.

Wood gave way to Austin Adams, and Adams pitched a three up, three down seventh while striking out two and providing some fiery celebrations.

Andrew Heaney countered Wood tonight and was very impressive in his own regard. Heaney went six innings himself while allowing just one earned run and striking out five, but his effort was impeded by subpar Rangers defense. His day ended with a gracious lead-off “double” in center field by Bleday when the very catchable ball tipped off Leody Taveras’ glove.

The A’s were able to put another man on after Bleday to set up first and second with just one-out, but their offense couldn’t cash in. This was a common theme for the A’s all night as they left seven on base and went 0-9 with RISP. With just a two-run lead at the time they couldn’t do anything to add on, and Seager would make them pay in the next inning.

After a walk and single set up first and second for the Rangers off Erceg, Erceg’s fifth straight change-up thrown to Seager would be a costly one as the struggling shortstop put the Rangers ahead in the eighth.

The Rangers tacked on a fourth run in the ninth thanks to a costly Tyler Nevin error at first. Instead of an inning ending double play ball sending the A’s to the bottom half down just one, the ball went completely under Nevins glove with the backhand and into right field to give the Rangers a 4-2 lead.

The run wouldn’t come back to hurt the A’s who went down scoreless in the ninth despite bringing the tying run to the plate. With a runner on first, Harris smacked a line-drive right to Lowe at first who was able to double up the runner to end the game. Rangers closer Kirby Yates extends his scoreless streak to 16 innings with the save.

Mark Kotsay will hand the ball to Ross Stripling for game two of the series at an unconventional 12:37 PM PDT Tuesday start time. Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has not named a starter for tomorrow yet.