Rangers Beat A’s
OAKLAND, Calif. — It took them five tries, but the Texas Rangers finally came up with a formula to beat the Oakland Athletics this season.
Robinson Chirinos, Ryan Rua and Elvis Andrus hit home runs, and left-hander Martin Perez won his fifth straight start as the Rangers beat Oakland 10-6 on Tuesday night.
The A’s had defeated the Rangers four straight times — all at the Oakland Coliseum — and were coming off a 14-5 victory Monday night.
“They’ve played well against us this year,” Rua said of the A’s. “That’s a talented ballclub over there. But for us to come up and put up runs early and give Martin some room was huge.”
Perez (6-4) gave up four runs and nine hits in seven innings while striking out two and walking none. He hasn’t lost a game since May 18, an 8-1 defeat to Oakland at the Coliseum. Perez had lost nine straight decisions on the road before ending that skid Tuesday.
“It feels good,” Perez said. “I just need to continue to do my job and continue to trust my stuff and throw my pitches. (Just) because you have five games in a row you don’t have to stop. You have to continue and that ‘s how I like to work. I like to work game by
game, pitch by pitch. If you do that you’re going to win a lot of games.”
Chirinos hit a three-run homer in the second inning, Rua had a solo shot in the third and Andrus added a solo blast in the eighth.
Andrus went 3-for-5, drove in two runs and scored twice. Rua went 2-for-3 with three RBIs and scored twice. He raised his batting average to .300.
Texas snapped the A’s season-high six-game home winning streak.
A’s left-hander Eric Surkamp (0-4), who was recalled Tuesday from Triple-A Nashville, gave up seven runs and seven hits, including two home runs, in 2 1/3 innings. He is winless in seven starts for the A’s this season and has lost his past seven major league starts.
“Tonight was just a weird thing,” Surkamp said. “My arm felt great, but I just felt like I had nothing behind the ball. I don’t know what it was. Just checking the board, the velocity, I was letting some of them go and they weren’t coming out like I’m used to.”
Khris Davis went 2-for-4 with a double, drove in two runs and scored once for the A’s.
The A’s s trailed 7-1 after three innings but scored three times in the sixth against Perez, cutting Texas’ lead to 7-4. Oakland had four hits in the rally, including an RBI single by Davis and a run-scoring double by Josh Phegley. Billy Butler drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.
Andrus lined a home run to left with one out in the seventh, increasing the Rangers’ lead to 8-4. Rua had and RBI single in the ninth, driving in Ian Desmond, who led off with a double. Prince Fielder brought Rua home with a double.
Yonder Alonso hit a two-run double in the ninth for Oakland.
The Rangers scored a run in the first inning, three in the second and three in the third.
Surkamp walked Roughned Odor with one out in the third then gave up a single to Andrus, bringing Chirinos to the plate. Chirinos fell behind 0-2 in the count but crushed Surkamp’s hanging curve over the left field fence. Chirinos (right forearm fracture) was reinstated from the disabled list on Thursday and played in just his ninth game of the season.
“It’s good to help the team and score runs early in the game, especially when you’re behind in the count,” said Chirinos, who hit ninth in the order. “He left that breaking ball up in the strike zone and I was able to hit it good and hit it out of the park.”
Surkamp has pitched well for Nashville, but his ERA is 8.07 with the A’s.
“That’s the way baseball is,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “You go back and forth until you pitch well enough to stay here. So he pitched well in the minor leagues. He just hasn’t done it here at this point.”
Rua led off the third inning with his sixth home run of the season and second in two days to make it 5-1 Rangers. Andrus had an RBI single and Shin-Soo Choo a bases-loaded walk in the inning, increasing Texas’ lead to 7-1.
Davis hit an RBI double in the first inning, driving in Billy Burns, who led off with a single.
