The A's end up on the wrong side of tonight's slug-fest as the four unearned runs they allowed in the fifth--after they had put up a 5-spot in the previous inning--prove to be too much for their offense to overcome. Although they did score 8 runs in the game, they should have also scored the the tying run.
Texas led off the game with two runs on a sac fly and a double to give them the early 2-0 lead. They would double this lead in the fourth on a single and a homerun; the score was 4-0 Texas before the A's could even manage to get a hit.
It would take until the fourth inning before the A's had their first hit, but it was soon followed by five more. Davis started the parade with a one-out single, Sweeney doubled, Suzuki singled, Cust singled, Ellis doubled, and with two outs, Pennington singled to complete the five run rally for the lead.
Unfortunately, the A's didn't like the lead.
Thanks to four hits and two errors (and could have/should have been another error on Pennington in the inning), Texas regained the lead with four runs. The last two were scored after a double-steal, on a hit by Byrd after he had taken what looked like strike 3.
The A's scored single runs in the next three innings; a homerun by Patterson (!!!!), a single by Barton, and a double by Davis, but they allowed Texas to score one more to bring their total to 9.
The seventh inning should have been more lucrative for the A's, as both Suzuki and Garciaparra struck out with Rajai Davis as the winning run on third.
They wouldn't score again.
Wuertz and Bailey kept the Rangers off the board in the eighth and ninth; Bailey with yet another perfect inning with two strikeouts. His ERA is now 1.93, and as Korach said, "If Andrew Bailey isn’t the best rookie pitcher in baseball, I don’t know who is." Forget rookie pitcher; Bailey is one of the best pitchers in baseball right now.
Fun fact: Patterson now has a higher batting average than Cust.
See you tomorrow afternoon for the conclusion of this series. A's try to split the series at 12:35.
