Rangers Lose To A’s
By Art Spander, The Sports Xchange
OAKLAND, Calif — The Texas Rangers had their ace, and for five innings Yu Darvish pitched exactly as everyone, including his manager, knew he could. The problem for the Rangers is they were facing X-factor, Andrew Triggs, who nobody suspected would win this pitchers’ duel.
Triggs was up and back last season, a reliever who couldn’t quite stay on the Oakland Athletics’ roster. Then, the decision was made to make him a starter. So far, the decision has been brilliant.
Triggs proved the stopper the tumbling Athletics desperately needed, once more not yielding an earned run, and helping Oakland stop a four-game losing streak Tuesday night by beating the Rangers 4-2 at the Coliseum.
Triggs has gone 17 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run in building up a 3-0 record for a team which only has six wins overall. Of course, that’s one more victory than the Rangers, who at this early point of the season are alone in last in American League West.
“Pretty amazing based on what we saw last year,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin.
He meant about Triggs, not the presumed stumble by the Rangers, 2016 division champions. Then again, maybe he also meant the Rangers.
“To do what he’s done to this point,” said Melvin of Triggs, “is a surprise.”
Surely Rangers manager Jeff Banister was surprised by what happened to his own starter, Darvish. As soon as Texas broke a scoreless tie with two runs in the top of the sixth — unearned runs, naturally, the poor-fielding A’s making an error for an 11th straight game — Darvish fell apart in the bottom of the inning.
“That leadoff walk,” said Banister.
It went to Trevor Plouffe. Two batters later, Adam Rosales slammed a ball into the virtually empty seats in left and the game was tied. A double, a walk and Darvish was gone.
“Your No. 1 guy is out there,” said Banister. “A minimum of pitches through five. Triggs did a fine job. I don’t know if our guy lost the strike zone or lost focus. It was a challenge for us.”
These are strange days for the A’s. The weather in the Bay Area has been lousy — a rainout Sunday, rain during the game Monday — and then sunshine Tuesday. The tarps that covered the third deck have been removed, improving the atmosphere if not the gate. On Tuesday night, there might not have been a dozen people in that upper deck.
The A’s are last in fielding in the American League, and their shortstop, Marcus Semien, had a screw put into his broken wrist during surgery Tuesday afternoon. Depressing all around. Until the game.
Semien’s replacement is Rosales, the man who homered, from the ninth spot in the order.
“You could feel the excitement after that,” said Melvin. “We picked it up.”
Yonder Alonso’s failure to pick up Jurickson Profar’s grounder in the top of the sixth, followed by Elvis Andrus singling and then stealing both second and third, were the factors in Texas breaking the 0-0 tie. Oakland seemed destined for a fifth straight defeat.
“To get those two runs for Triggs,” said Rosales, “was so important. He’s been doing really well. He’s been doing really well, commanding his pitches.”
Triggs said, “Today more so than the last time I felt like I was making better pitches. My breaking ball was sharper. That’s what I was working on.”
He was a bit shaken by falling behind, but only a bit.
“Two runs,” he said, “that’s not something you want to do. I was frustrated with myself
“I thought I let the running game get away from me a little bit in that inning. But our guys are so good and always upbeat, so you know that once one guy gets on, that’s a threat to string things together.”
Andrus and the Rangers did string them together, but, for the first time in five games, the Oakland came back for a victory.
