Daniel Mengden was simply sensational in his Coliseum debut, yet rendered a footnote Thursday when Texas starter Colby Lewis had a ideal game going with two outs in the eighth inning.
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In the ninth, Lewis fell behind Muncy 2-1 before the left-handed hitter hit a high drive toward the right-field wall.
Ian Desmond broke a scoreless tie with a leadoff home run in the seventh, propelling the Rangers to a third win in four days against the A’s and their franchise-record-tying eighth straight series win.
Lewis, 36, has been a picture of efficiency, needing just 75 pitches through seven innings, notching just three strikeouts but inducing weak grounders from the Oakland hitters. He took a ideal game into the eighth inning and had his no-hitter broken up in the ninth.
He motored through the seventh, getting three soft grounders, just as he’d done in the sixth.
“I was thinking about it after the first time through the lineup, the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth”, Lewis said, adding that any pitcher who says they don’t think about a ideal game: “They’re lying”.
The right-hander had faced three-ball counts just three previous times in the game. He retired 15 batters in a row after a second-inning single by Adrian Beltre and carried his end of a 0-0 shutout in the seventh. Freeman had a first-inning single before driving in Mallex Smith with the third-inning homer that landed in front of the Braves’ bullpen beyond the right-field wall. Beltre was back in the lineup at third base after missing seven games with a hamstring strain. And Prince Fielder’s infield grounder made it 2-0. The Rangers took a 5-0 lead into the ninth inning.
The A’s, now 27-39, are 14 games out of first place, their low-water mark for the season. Semien, who earlier had one of just three well-struck Oakland outs, crushed a liner that looked to be ticketed for the left-field corner. For the A’s, there hasn’t been a ideal game against them in either Oakland or Kansas City, but Cy Young – yes, that Cy Young – threw one against them in 1904 when the A’s were based in Philadelphia. Both teams remain undecided on a Saturday starter. Not that the subject hasn’t come up.
Rangers: RHP Yu Darvish, on the disabled list since June 9 with shoulder soreness, will join the Rangers in St. Louis this weekend but it’s not clear when he’ll start his throwing program, manager Jeff Banister said. So the A’s did think briefly about skipping Nashville and plugging Alvarez into the Oakland rotation.
“He was outstanding”, A’s catcher Stephen Vogt said. He’s not particularly hurt, but the time off does have certain benefits.
“Nobody wants to get no-hit”, Muncy said, recalling he then thought to himself: “OK, we broke it up”. Colby was that kind of good today.
-Rich Hill was awarded his May Pitcher of the Month award by manager Bob Melvin in a pregame ceremony.
Josh Donaldson went 3-for-3, reached base five times and scored three runs for Toronto, which outscored the Phillies 31-7 in winning the last three contests of a four-game home-and-home series.
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NOTES: Upon further review, Wednesday’s power display by Rangers C Robinson Chirinos and 2B Rougned Odor marked the first time two Venezuelan-born players have ever hit two home runs apiece in the same Major League Baseball game.
