Rangers Reaction: Athletics stay on offensive as Texas’ offense goes AWOL

That resurgent Texas Rangers’ offense has hit a brick wall in Oakland. The A’s shut out the Rangers for the second consecutive night 6-0 Tuesday at Oakland Coliseum.

It’s the first time Texas has been blanked in consecutive games since Aug. 13-14, 2016, against the Tigers. The A’s have won six consecutive games against the Rangers. The series finale is at 2:35 p.m. Wednesday.

“I think it’s a couple of pitchers who have made some really good pitches against us,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “Tonight, it looked like [Brett] Anderson had the power sinker working very well. He had all three pitches in play. Looked like we were a little aggressive tonight coming off last night.”

Anderson allowed one hit — a fourth-inning double by Shin-Soo Choo — over seven innings. He struck out six and walked one. Rangers’ rookie Ariel Jurado allowed four runs on 10 hits, including two doubles, in 5 2/3 innings.

Five thoughts from a 6-0 shutout loss in Oakland.

1. Blanked again — Texas was held to two hits and have had five total in their last 18 innings. The Rangers have been held to three or fewer hits four times in 2018, and two of them have come in the past two days.

2. Jurado’s progress — The rookie right-hander allowed four runs in 5 2/3 innings, a slight improvement over his previous two starts when he allowed six runs in each start. Although he allowed 10 hits (including two doubles), only three of the hits were hit hard. It was a fact Banister took solace in.

“It’s a good learning experience for him,” Banister said. “These young guys learn what they can do and are better for it.”

Banister thought Jurado’s breaking ball was better tonight. It has been a point of emphasis since his last start against the Angels. “He got some strikes with it. Part of the program is to continue to develop the secondary stuff,” he said.

3. Khris Khrazy — Khris Davis did it again. The A’s slugger homered against Matt Moore in the seventh to give himself 26 homers against the Rangers since 2016. Davis was 2 for 4 with three RBIs. “I think we’ve got to look at how we pitch him and the mistakes that we make,” Banister said. “He’s a good hitter. The home run numbers are what they are. We know how we need to pitch him. There are times we do make mistakes and he hasn’t missed them. Part of it is you tip your cap to him and part of it is we need to be better against him.”

4. Profar’s hot corner — Jurickson Profar doesn’t want Adrian Beltre to retire, but if he does, playing every day third base is fine with him. Profar, who played his 29th game at the hot corner Tuesday night, said staying at one position is helpful. He’s also played 64 games at shortstop, nine games at second and 14 games at first.

“Wherever they want,” Profar said. “I don’t want him to retire. I think we’re going to have a good team next year with him. He’s getting a little old and he needs to DH, so that means I’m going to play third base a lot next year. Let’s see what he decides. But I’m ready for anything.”

Banister likes what he’s seen from Profar at third.

“He continues to get more comfortable on a daily basis playing third base. We like how he is moving and learning some of the different depths and angles,” he said. “I think he has a pretty good feel for playing third base.”

5. On the farm — Left-hander Yohander Mendez, who was demoted to High-A Down East after breaking team rules during a trip to Kansas City in June, has moved back up to Triple-A Round Rock and will start Thursday for the Express. Left-hander Joe Palumbo was promoted to Double-A Frisco and will start Wednesday’s game for the RoughRiders. Palumbo had a 2.67 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 27 innings (over six starts) for Down East.

This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 12:39 AM.