Game #49: A’s pounded by Rangers 11-4

The pitching staff is still a work in progress.

The Oakland A’s were pounded 11-4 by the Texas Rangers on Saturday at the Coliseum, their third straight loss in this four-game series.

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This one was Rangers all the way. A’s starter Zach Logue navigated through trouble in each of the first two innings but ran out of magic in the 3rd, allowing back-to-back homers and leaving with four runs in and only one out.

• Logue: 2⅓ ip, 4 runs, 1 K, 1 BB, 2 HR, 7 hits, 56 pitches

The first arm out of the bullpen was Jacob Lemoine, who escaped the rest of the 3rd inning and breezed through the 4th. But Texas rallied against him in the 5th and plated five runs, capped with a grand slam by Marcus Semien. Before the inning was over, they added a sixth run off lefty reliever Adam Kolarek.

At that point the score was 10-2, and it never got much better. On the bright side, reliever Austin Pruitt shined in his debut for the team after being called up this morning, as he tossed three scoreless innings to finish the rout without further damage.

Meanwhile, Oakland’s lineup made a bit of noise but not nearly enough. They banged out 10 hits and drew a pair of walks, but went only 1-for-12 with runners in scoring position and left a total of 22 chances on base. When they scored, it was individual tallies instead of the crooked numbers Texas compiled:

• 4th inning, Elvis Andrus singled, then broke too early for a steal but the pitcher threw away the pickoff attempt. Andrus ended up on third base, then scored on an RBI groundout by Sheldon Neuse.
• 5th inning, Ramon Laureano hit a solo homer, his first of the year.
• 6th inning, with runners on second and third, Neuse singled to drive one home.
• 7th inning, runners on second and third with two out, Andrus hit a grounder to third but the fielder clanked it. The fielder recovered in time to pick it up and tag out the runner who’d been headed toward third, but the lead runner was able to cross the plate before the non-force tag was applied, so the run counted.

Half of those runs were gifts, but for what it’s worth, they did help make some of their own good luck by putting lots of runners on base and putting the ball in play.

Overall, a forgettable day for the A’s. The pitching got blasted, and the offense came up short. At least we can enjoy another highlight catch by Cristian Pache in center field!