Rangers Win On Hit Batter

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers needed a little help on offense and the Oakland pitching staff provided it Tuesday night.

Three walks set the stage for a Texas rally in the 10th inning and a bases-loaded hit by pitch ended the game as the Rangers rallied for three runs in the 10th to win 5-4.

It was the first walkoff win by a hit by pitch for the Rangers since Jeff Francoeur did it in 2010. It capped a wacky night in which Oakland pushed the game to extras with a two-out single in the ninth inning and then seemed to take control with two runs in the top of the 10th to take a 4-2 lead.

But John Axford (4-4) walked three straight batters with one out to load the bases. Carlos Beltran then tied the game by lining a single to center with his career-high matching fourth hit of the game.

That ended the night for Axford and lefty Marc Rzepczynski came on. He intentionally walked Adrian Beltre to reload the bases before plunking Rougned Odor with the first pitch he threw him.

“I was trying to get the ground-ball double play,” said Rzepczynski. “The majority of the time I threw sinkers into lefties. I threw one and it ran instead of sank. And it ran right into his (Odor’s) shoulder. That sums it up right there.”

Oakland manager Bob Melvin didn’t want to let Beltre beat Oakland and liked the lefty-lefty matchup of Rzepczynski vs. Odor. It just didn’t work out and Axford took the blame for putting Oakland in that situation.

“I felt good,” Axford said. “Everything was coming out nice. I felt like I had my

electric stuff today, but I wasn’t finding the zone and some of the borderline ones, I’m not going to get. I’m all over the place, I’m not going to get something close.”

Beltran was confident the Rangers could get the job done despite a deflating final two innings in which Oakland scored three times.

“Since I’ve joined the ballclub, I have seen the energy in the clubhouse and the energy in the dugout day in and day out,” said Beltran, who had four of the six Texas hits. “They could be three runs behind or four runs behind and feel they can come back. Having that attitude is really great to see for me. Being able to join a club that really has that attitude and the game that we’re playing right now, every single game is meaningful, so it really means a lot to me.”

Odor thought the Rangers could get the job done too for their 38th come-from-behind win of the year, especially after Oakland walked Beltre to get to him.

“As soon as they walked Adrian, I was ready to hit, and the pitch he threw me was really, really in, and I was like, I’m not going to move,” Odor said. “I’ll take that pitch, and we’ll win the game.”

The Rangers had their own trouble in the top of the 10th inning.

Yonder Alonso put the A’s up by ripping a double to right off Kela to drive in Brett Eibner, who had opened the inning with walk. Ryon Healy added an RBI single to left.

The Rangers didn’t look like they would need extra innings, but Oakland rallied in the ninth to change that.

Danny Valencia’s RBI single with two outs in the top of the ninth tied the game 2-2 and came after Oakland opened the game 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The A’s finished with 11 hits and also drew eight walks.

Oakland starter Andrew Triggs had a career night in his third start. Triggs pitched a career-high 5 2/3 innings and allowed just one run on two hits.

Triggs lasted a lot longer than Texas starter Lucas Harrell, who exited after just two innings with a strained groin. The Texas bullpen made up for the short Harrell start until the ninth inning as it got six scoreless innings from the trio of Alex Claudio, Jake Diekman and Jeremy Jeffress.

Oakland took 1-0 lead in the second inning on an RBI bases-loaded walk by Valencia, and the Rangers tied it at 1 in the sixth on an RBI single by Beltran. The Rangers took a 2-1 lead in the seventh on a sacrifice fly from Elvis Andrus.

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