Rangers’ best bet gets bitten hard by last-place A’s

The Texas Rangers’ starting rotation has had its moments this season, like when it flourished early with the league’s top ERA before buckling for an extended stretch.

There were exceptions, but even Yu Darvish was caught up in the struggles.

Yet, since the right-hander was traded, the rotation has been a team strength. The starters’ ERA in the 16 games before Saturday was 3.64, and that included the work of Tyson Ross.

Martin Perez, Andrew Cashner, A.J. Griffin and Nick Martinez had all done something to contribute, but none were as good as Cole Hamels. He was a start away from possibly being the American League Pitcher of the Month, which makes what happened Saturday that much harder to stomach.

The Oakland A’s got to Hamels for six runs in 4 1/3 innings, and the Texas Rangers lost again to the league’s worst-hitting team, 8-3, in a series that seemed ripe to push them upward in the wild-card standings.

Instead, the Rangers need a win Sunday to avoid a three-game sweep to the last-place A’s and to move back to .500 ahead of a three-game series against the first-place Houston Astros.

Asked if he could pinpoint what went wrong, Hamels had a simple answer.

“Everything,” he said. “I could throw a good strike here and two bad pitches. I think it was more timing. I was not able to be as controlled when I was landing, and therefore my release point and feel for our four pitches I was throwing were not consistent to get in that rhythm.

“You’re fighting and struggling for it every inning. I wasn’t able to string it together for every batter and every inning, and that makes it tough.”

Yet, Hamels remains the Rangers’ best bet if they need to win one game, as might be the case should they secure a wild-card spot into the postseason. Minnesota, the team holding down the second wild-card berth, also lost Saturday, so the Rangers remained two games back despite falling under .500 (64-65).

“I try to concentrate on what our guys need to do and on winning baseball games,” manager Jeff Banister said. “If we take care of our business, that’s what most important.”

The outing pushed the rotation’s ERA over the past 17 games to 4.02 and snapped Hamels’ four-start winning streak. His ERA jumped from 3.42 to 3.78 as he lost for only the second time this season.

The nine hits allowed matched a season-high, and the six runs are topped only by the seven he issued July 20 at Baltimore.

“Putting us in a situation is not what I like to do,” Hamel said. “You have to battle, and it’s not going to be easy to get a win.”

The Rangers again staked their starter to a first-inning lead, as Adrian Beltre drove in two with a one-out double against Sean Manaea. But that was all Manaea would yield as the Rangers failed to delivery a timely hit.

It wasn’t for a lack of chances, and as they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position following Beltre’s 609th career double. The Rangers had nine hits for the second straight game and for the third time in a loss on this road trip.

The biggest miss came in the fifth, as Mike Napoli batted with the bases loaded and two outs. He was ahead in the count 3-1, and hooked the next pitch just foul but with home-run distance. He struck out two pitches later by chasing a ball in the dirt.

“We have created situations, but we haven’t been able to bring them home,” Beltre said. “That’s pretty much it. We had plenty of chances today and yesterday.”

The A’s then extended their 3-2 lead. Marcus Semien opened with a double against Hamels, who walked Chad Pinder. Maybe that was by design, as Pinder homered in his first two at-bats.

But Jed Lowrie follwed with an RBI double, and Khris Davis collected a sacrifice fly before a Ryan Healy single drove in two and sent Hamels packing.

On a day when everything went right, he’s still the Rangers’ best bet if the need to win one game. All he can do is work to make sure everything goes right next time out.

“We do everything we can to make sure that we can do this job as best as we possibly can, and sometimes things can just go awry,” Hamels said. “It’s a matter of addressing what I need to to get the timing back and get out there next week.”

AL wild-card standings

This story was originally published August 26, 2017 at 8:05 PM with the headline "Rangers’ best bet gets bitten hard by last-place A’s."