OAKLAND –- The Texas Rangers have not been kind to Felix Doubront lately.
For the second time in a 10-day span, they pounded the A’s lefty for seven runs and rolled to a 10-3 victory at the Coliseum on Wednesday night. Texas has taken the first two games of this three-game series to extend its American League West lead to three games over the Houston Astros, who lost again to the Angels.
Two starts ago at Globe Life Park, Doubront (3-3) allowed three homers and seven runs in a 12-4 loss to Texas. The long ball hurt him again Tuesday as he gave up a pair of three-run homers that sucked the drama out of this one by the fifth inning. Elvis Andrus hammered a 1-0 pitch deep over the left field wall in the Rangers’ four-run fourth. An inning later, it was Adrian Beltre who jumped on the first pitch from Doubront and clubbed his own three-run shot that made it a 7-1 game.
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Doubront departed after 4 2/3 innings, giving up seven runs on eight hits.
After the Rangers’ power display in the middle innings, the home crowd had only a couple of isolated moments to enjoy. Josh Reddick hit his 20th homer in the sixth, and Eric Sogard went deep in the seventh to snap his 457 at-bat homerless streak, the longest for an A’s hitter since Jason Kendall went 619 at-bats between the 2006 and 2007 seasons.
Starting pitching report
Doubront continued the A’s recent run of shaky work from their rotation. This outing marked the 19th time in the past 39 games that an Oakland starter lasted five innings or fewer, with the rotation's ERA rising to 6.36 over that span.
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As an overall staff, the A’s entered the night with a 6.43 ERA in September. They’ve finished a month with an ERA above 6.00 just twice in Oakland history -- the last time it happened was 1997.
Bullpen report
R.J. Alvarez got tagged for a homer and three runs in the ninth.
At the plate
Reddick’s strong overall season at the plate has been one of the A’s bright spots. He’s reached the 20-homer mark for the second time; the first was during his 32-homer season of 2012.
In the fifth, Billy Burns had thoughts of going for an inside-the-park homer when his hit down the right field line got caught among the folding chairs sitting near the visitor’s bullpen. Burns tore around third and got more than halfway to home before beating it back to third, as the relay throw home appeared to have him beat. As it was, Burns’ triple was the A’s 41st of the season and set a new Oakland record.
In the field
Sogard, spelling Marcus Semien at shortstop, made a nice backhanded play in the hole to get a force at second to end the top of the fourth. But Reddick’s two errors, both on ground-ball hits to right field, put a damper on the night defensively.
Attendance
The announced turnout was 16,445.
Up next
Thursday’s 12:35 p.m. series finale marks the return of Chris Bassitt (1-6, 2.82), making his first start since Aug. 26 after a bout of shoulder soreness. He’ll oppose Cole Hamels (4-1, 3.73), as the lefty makes his first start.
