Oakland Roughs Up Rangers
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ARLINGTON, Texas — Oakland A’s starter Jarrod Parker didn’t want to turn Tuesday night’s matchup against the Texas Rangers into a personal duel with Yu Darvish.
“I just wanted to stay within myself,” Parker said.
That was enough to stymie the Rangers, as the A’s knocked around Texas’ ace in 6-2 win at Rangers Ballpark.
Oakland (43-30) bounced back from a loss in the series opener Monday to retake a three-game lead over the Rangers in the American League West. Texas (39-32) has lost seven of its last eight games.
The third game in the four-game set is Wednesday night. Oakland and Texas have split eight games so far this season.
Parker evened his record at 6-6 by keeping the Rangers in check, which has been a regular occurrence lately. Parker was backed by home runs from Brandon Moss and John Jaso.
“My changeup was pretty good tonight,” Parker said. “I found it the last game and I was able to throw it for strikes. It’s an equalizer. In the fifth and sixth innings, I was able to buy a lot of strikes.
Darvish (7-3) has been mired in a stretch of little-to-no run support. The two runs Tuesday for
Darvish were actually the second most scored by the Rangers over his last six starts.
“We haven’t been scoring runs,” Texas manager Ron Washington said. “Tonight Yu wasn’t bad, but Parker was better. We scored two runs and that’s all we could get.”
Darvish lasted six innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on six hits. He left after 109 pitches and 10 strikeouts, his MLB-best sixth game in double digits this season. His 14 double-digit-strikeout games since 2012 also lead baseball.
Parker worked seven innings and gave up just two runs on three hits, two coming in the second inning. He’s 4-0 over his last four starts and 4-1 all-time against Texas.
The A’s hit their two home runs off Darvish in the first three innings for an early 3-0 lead. Moss led off the second with a solo homer to right. Josh Reddick singled with two outs, stole second and scored on Eric Sogard’s single.
John Jaso opened the third with a blast to right. Oakland added another two runs in the fourth on Darvish’s wild pitch and an error by first baseman Lance Berkman. Struggling with his control, Darvish needed 80 pitches to get 12 outs.
He felt the location of both home runs, each off fastballs, was fine.
“I wasn’t dissatisfied with those pitches,” said Darvish, who has suffered three of four career losses at Rangers Ballpark to Oakland. “They squared off on really good pitches.”
The Rangers scored twice in the third playing small ball. Leonys Martin singled and stole second. Ian Kinsler walked and both runners moved up a base on Jurickson Profar’s second sac bunt of the game.
A.J. Pierzynski blooped a single to center to score two. Kinsler collided with Jaso, knocking the ball free from the Oakland catcher before reaching back to touch the plate with his foot. Kinsler suffered a cut along his jaw, which needed three stitches to close before play resumed in the fourth.
Texas hardly threatened again against Parker.
“The key was after he gave up the two runs was to come out the next inning and shut them down,” Oakland manager Bob Melvin said.
