Rangers rally for ninth inning comeback against A’s

Jonathan Lucroy’s two-run single down the left-field line with two outs in the ninth lifted the Rangers to a 7-6 win over the Athletics Friday night at Globe Life Park. Carlos Beltran started the inning with a one-out double and Adrian Beltre followed with a walk. Pinch-runners Delino DeShields and Joey Gallo scored on Lucroy’s game-winner. The Rangers won their club-record eighth game when trailing after eight innings this season. It’s the Rangers’ seventh walk-off win and major league-leading 45th come from behind win. Only season they had more was 50 in 2013. The Rangers are now a major league best 34-10 in one-run games.

Pitching: Cole Hamels allowed six earned runs in six innings and left trailing 6-4. Hamels has allowed six or more earned runs in his three of past four starts. The A’s scored three in the fourth on a two-run homer by Khris Davis and run-scoring single by Brett Eibner.

The A’s added three more in the sixth on Eibner’s three-run homer. A single and walk set up the two-out homer, which pushed Oakland’s lead to 6-2. Keone Kela, Matt Bush and Sam Dyson each pitched a scoreless inning of relief. Dyson earned the win.

Hitting: The Rangers scored twice in the fifth and twice in the sixth to pull to within 6-4. Elvis Andrus’ double down the left-field line scored Lucroy and Nomar Mazara scored on Carlos Gomez’s groundout. Beltran and Beltre started the sixth with doubles. Beltran scored on Beltre’s double to right. Beltre was thrown out on Lucroy’s tapper back to the mound for the first out before Mitch Moreland singled in Rougned Odor to make it 6-4. Gomez homered in the seventh to pull the Rangers to within 6-5. The Rangers had the bases loaded with two outs in the eighth after a single, walk and E6 but Gomez grounded out hard to second to end the inning.

Notable: Beltre moved ahead of Al Simmons, alone at 38th all-time with his 2,928th hit in the sixth. He’s three shy of passing Rogers Hornsby int 37th place all-time ... it was his 587th double. He needs six doubles to pass Todd Helton (592) into 18th place all-time ... Beltran had two doubles to move ahead of Lou Gehrig at 39th all-time with 535 ... Rangers have hit homers in 17 consecutive games, matching the longest stretch this season and tied for fourth longest in club history ... The bullpen has won a club record 37 games ... Oakland’s Renato Nunez collected his first major league hit with a single in the sixth.

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 10:17 PM with the headline "Rangers rally for ninth inning comeback against A’s."