A’s drop series to Rangers with 5-2 loss Sunday

The Oakland Athletics fell behind early and were unable to mount a comeback against Jacob deGrom in a 5-2 loss to the Texas Rangers. Oakland has now lost two straight and are 4-18 for the season.

The game started roughly for Kyle Muller who pitched himself into and out of a jam in the first. The Rangers loaded the bases with one out with a walk to Marcus Semien, a single by Nathaniel Lowe and another free pass to Adolis Garcia. Muller came back and struck out Josh Jung for the second out and then got Jonah Heim to ground out to escape with no damage.

He wouldn’t be as fortunate in the second. Leody Tavares got things started with a one-out single and then moved up to second on another walk by Semien. Robbie Grossman then brought them all home with a homer to left center to put the Rangers in front 3-0.

Texas added another run in the fourth as Tavares singled again and then moved up to second on a bunt by Bubba Thompson. He moved to third as Semien reached on an infield single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Grossman to extend the lead to 4-0.

Oakland’s offense wasn’t able to do much against deGrom over the first four frames, but they finally broke through in the fifth. Jordan Diaz reached on an error by Ezequiel Duran to start the inning and then came around to score as Shea Langeliers connected on his fourth home run of the season to make it 4-2.

Muller allowed a double to Duran with two outs in the fifth, but got Tavares to fly out to leave him stranded. He would exit at the end of the inning having allowed seven hits, four walks and four runs while throwing 93 pitches.

deGrom struck out the side in the sixth to give him 11 for the game. He allowed just three hits and only one of the two runs he allowed were earned.

Richard Lovelady pitched around a two-out walk to Grossman in a scoreless sixth and Chad Smith worked a perfect seventh. He came back out for the eighth and retired Duran before allowing another single to Tavares. Smith would then give way to Sam Moll who allowed a single to pinch-hitter Travis Jankowski. After a fly out by Semien for the second out, Moll walked Grossman to load the bases and then uncorked a wild pitch that scored Tavares to make it 5-2.

Aledmys Diaz singled with two outs in the ninth but Will Smith got Jordan Diaz to fly out to end the game.

The A’s finished with just five hits in the game and struck out 15 times. They left eight men on base, but were just 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position.