Lewis gave up a solo homer to Khris Davis in the top of the fourth inning and then completely lost his command in Oakland’s two-run sixth. The shot was Davis’ 40th of the season and the second of the game.
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“I just didn’t make pitches. It’s junk. Yeah, the sixth inning was junk”.
Carlos Gomez homered for the Rangers (88-61), who began the day with a magic number of six for closing out Seattle in the AL West.
Davis’ homers and three RBIs led the Athletics past Texas 5-2 on Sunday and kept the Rangers from moving closer to the AL West title.
Davis helped make a victor of Ross Detwiler (2-3), who limited the Rangers to two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. But the 36-year-old pitcher got through the outing with no apparent issues after missing so much time with a strained right lat.
“I’ve got to go out and make pitches and keep it tight”, he said.
Ross Detwiler (2-3) went 5 1/3 innings and limited the Rangers to two runs after going 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA in his previous six games for the A’s.
Elvis Andrus led off the Texas sixth with a single, and on the next pitch Gomez hit his 11th homer this season, his sixth in 22 games with Texas. Davis broke that mark when he went the opposite way in the eighth, a two-run shot to right off Keone Kela that also pushed his RBI total to 99.
“It’s pretty cool. I’m proud of myself”, Davis said. At the same time, we’ve still got a couple of more weeks. “I don’t know why 45 is out of the question”. He pitched solidly in his last turn against the Angels despite settling for a no-decision after giving up one run and three hits while striking out nine in 6 2/3 innings.
Since nothing has been sewn up yet though, Lewis isn’t looking at his starts as tuneups for the postseason. Oakland scored three more in the fifth on a three-run homer by Marcus Semien. A fielder’s-choice grounder from Renato Nunez made it 3-2.
“That loss, it’s definitely on my back”. “I can’t say enough about the desire and commitment these guys still have to finishing out the season strong”. “If I did my job we’re having a different conversation”.
Road woes: Their loss to Texas on Friday was No. 41 on the road for the A’s in 2016, guaranteeing the team a losing record away from the Coliseum for a third consecutive season and for the eighth time in 10 years. His lone complete game this season came at Oakland on June 16, when he let up just two hits in a 5-1 victory. Rangers 3B Adrian Beltre extended his hitting streak to eight games and is batting.351 with five homers in September.2.
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The Oakland Athletics haven’t had a lot to smile about this season but they had one of their best games of the year last night on the road against the division leading Rangers and if they can finish out this series on a positive note it should give them some momentum to finish out their schedule.
