Rangers Lose In Oakland
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OAKLAND, Calif. — The Oakland Athletics dominance of Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish continued to be as predictable as it is inexplicable Tuesday night at the O.co Coliseum.
The A’s beat Darvish for the eighth consecutive time, rolling to a 10-6 victory as left-hander Tommy Milone won his career-high tying fifth straight game.
Darvish was out of the game by the time A’s catcher Derek Norris came off the bench to slug his fourth career pinch hit home run, a three-run blast in the sixth inning off reliever Shawn Tolleson, and add a two-run double in the eighth off Jason Frasor. But Norris had a front row seat as his teammates racked up eight hits and seven runs, four earned, over five innings against Darvish.
“I don’t know what it is, but sometimes good pitchers just have that one kryptonite team where they just always struggle, and before too long it gets in your head and you’re unable to execute the pitches you need
to execute,” Norris said.
Darvish (7-3) struck out eight and walked five, falling to 1-8 for his career against the A’s in 10 starts. His lone win came in his first career start against Oakland on May 6, 2012, at Arlington. In his previous start against Oakland, Darvish gave up four runs over 3 1/3 innings, the shortest start of his career.
Darvish came into Tuesday’s start off his first career complete game and shutout, a 6-0 victory against Miami. He entered the game with a 2.11 ERA, third lowest in the American League, and a four-game winning streak.
The A’s, as usual, weren’t impressed.
“It’s not how they approached me,” Darvish said. “I just didn’t have my stuff. That was the reason.”
Rangers manager Ron Washington said Darvish “couldn’t command the fastball,” which put him at a huge disadvantage.
“If he would have been able to command the fastball it would have been a different story,” Washington said. “After he couldn’t command the fastball there wasn’t much he could find to get in the strike zone to make something happen. It just wasn’t his night.”
Milone (5-3) allowed three runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings and improved to 2-4 for his career against Texas. He struck out three and walked one.
“Tommy’s really on a roll,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “We feel really good about our chances whenever he takes the mound.”
Rangers second baseman Rougned Odor hit a solo home run in the fifth and a two-run triple in the seventh.
A’s right fielder Stephen Vogt went 3-for-3 against Darvish and drove in two runs. Catcher John Jaso went 2-for-3 with a double and a run scored off Darvish.
“I don’t really know him that well, but the only three times I’ve seen him is when we’ve kind of hit him around,” Vogt said. “He’s such a good pitcher. We’ve been fortunate enough to have some success against him. I don’t have anything to explain that. I’m sure any pitcher in the world that gives up runs is going to be frustrated. Is there extra frustration against us? I don’t know. He’s such a good pitcher”
The A’s took a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the sixth inning and extended it to 8-3 on Norris’ eighth homer of the season.
Texas scored three times in the seventh as Odor ripped a two-run triple off right-hander Dan Otero and scored on center fielder Daniel Robertson’s ground out, but Norris one-hopped a two-run double off the left-center wall in the eighth.
“Maybe you bear down a little more, just like a pitcher does with runners on,” Norris said, trying to explain his success with runners on base. “I’m just trying not to do too much, just trying to put the barrel on the ball and put it in play and whatever happens, happens.”
