Oakland A’s 9, Texas Rangers 3

Rangers drop second straight to surging A's.

ARLINGTON — The Texas Rangers fell victim to their own poor pitching Wednesday night, losing 9-3 to the Oakland A's at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. The loss dropped Texas to 91-64, just three games ahead of the surging A's for first place in the AL West. Oakland improved to 88-67.

Photo not provided by the Texas Rangers

The Rangers' divisional championship is teetering on the edge after two straight losses.

Rangers rookie starter Martin Perez was abysmal, allowing five runs on six hits in less than a single inning of work. Perez, who was also bombed in his last start, fell to 1-3 on the season with a 5.03 ERA.

A's starter Jarrod Parker was significantly better, giving up three runs over six innings and improving to 12-8 on the year.

Oakland came out in the top of the first with an all-out attack on the young Perez and never looked back. The Oakland lineup poured on six hits, including two triples --one of which was caused by a terrible job of fielding from center fielder Josh Hamilton-- before Roy Oswalt stepped in for Perez and got the final out of the first inning.

Down 5-0, Texas battled back in the next two innings. They put up one run in the first when Elvis Andrus doubled in Ian Kinsler, and scored two more in the second when Michael Young scored on a Mitch Moreland groundout, and Andrus drove in David Murphy with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-3.

With the game within reach again, this time the Rangers bullpen failed. In the top of the third rookie Wilmer Font, pitching in just his second major league game, opened the inning by giving up two walks. He was relieved by Tanner Scheppers, who struck out catcher Derek Norris before giving up another walk to A's second baseman Cliff Pennington. With the bases loaded and one out, Scheppers served up a single to shortstop Stephen Drew that turned a 5-3 game into a 7-3 blowout once again. Oakland would later score runs in the fourth and the ninth to cap the scoring.