Rangers Beat A’s

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OAKLAND, Calif. — Texas Rangers right-hander Nick Martinez was coming off his worst outing of the season and back-to-back defeats before facing the Oakland A’s on Tuesday night.

Martinez got back on track, and the surging Rangers beat the A’s 2-1, snapping Sonny Gray’s three-game winning streak.

Martinez (5-2) allowed just one hit over six shutout innings. He struck out three, walked three and hit a batter. Martinez lasted a season-low 3 1/3 innings and gave up seven runs in his previous start, a 9-2 loss to the White Sox on June 3.

“Back to the type of pitcher I am,” Martinez said. “Attacking hitters to both sides of the plate and working off of that. My last outing I had trouble finding it. Today was a great way to bounce back.”

The Rangers (31-27) won for the eighth time in their past 10 games and

pulled within two games of the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West. They improved to 20-12 on the road, the major league’s best road mark and a franchise record through 32 road games.

“They love being on the road,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “We got to do those things at home, too, but really it’s just a testament to who they are, what they do every night. I keep saying it, but it’s the truth. They feel that way coming into the clubhouse no matter where they’re at. They just love playing this game and playing together.”

First baseman Mitch Moreland hit a monstrous leadoff home run to center field against Gray in the sixth, extending the Rangers’ lead to 2-0. The home run was his seventh of the season, and it came on a 2-1 pitch, a fastball that Gray left up and over the plate. It was Moreland’s ninth home run at the Coliseum since 2010.

“A definite hitter’s count,” Moreland said. “I think he probably split the plate with a fastball. I hit it good. That’s about as good as I can get one.”

Oakland (23-37) lost its fourth consecutive game.

Gray (7-3) gave up two runs on nine hits over six innings. He struck out six, walked one and threw 95 pitches. He had a streak of 26 1/3 scoreless innings against the Rangers until they scored a run with two outs in the third.

“Felt OK,” Gray said. “It’s been better than it was tonight. I felt like at times it was a little flat, and then when they did put the bat on the ball, they kind of just put it in the right spots. Couple big hits and boom, it’s 2-0. That was just a little bit too much for us tonight.”

Oakland cut Texas’ lead to 2-1 in the eighth. Ben Zobrist hit a leadoff double against reliever Ross Detwiler that left fielder Delino DeShields appeared to lose in the lights and hold up on before diving. Stephen Vogt singled to center, and Zobrist scored standing, barely ahead of catcher Robinson Chirinos’ sweep tag after a strong throw from center fielder Leonys Martin. The Rangers challenged the safe call, but it stood after a video review.

Jon Edwards, Detwiler, Tanner Scheppers and Shawn Tolleson combined to hold Oakland to one run on four hits over the final three innings. Tolleson got his eighth save, pitching a shutout ninth.

The Rangers snapped a scoreless tie with a run in the third. DeShields drilled a 2-1 fastball to deep right-center field for a one-out triple. Gray struck out right fielder Shin-Soo Choo, but designated hitter Prince Fielder blooped a single to left, driving in DeShields.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” said A’s manager Bob Melvin, whose team fell to 3-16 in one-run games. “There’s a lot of frustration and a lot of things that are going on with us. In close games like that, we can’t get a big hit. We’ve lost a lot of one-run games.”

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