Rangers salvage finale against A’s behind Mike Minor’s gem

Mike Minor continues to be the brightest of bright spots among Texas Rangers’ pitchers in 2018.

The left-hander threw one of his best games of the season on Wednesday afternoon in the Rangers’ 4-2 win against the Athletics at Oakland Coliseum.

Minor held the A’s to one hit and one walk and faced the minimum over six innings before coming out after 73 pitches.

“I think it was the defense that kept me in the game. I didn’t strike many guys out so that means my defense was working for me,” said Minor, who improved to 10-6. “We made some double plays, Robinson [Chirinos] put some good signs down. I feel good about the zeroes on the board but I feel there is room for improvement.”

Adrian Beltre had two RBI singles and Shin-Soo Choo and Joey Gallo each homered to lead the offense on a 10-hit day. In their previous two games against Oakland, the Rangers were held scoreless on five combined hits.

Choo’s homer came on the first pitch of the game and ended a 19-inning scoreless stretch (going back to the eighth inning on Sunday). It was Choo’s fourth leadoff homer this season, 27th of his career and 16th with the Rangers.

Texas is off Thursday before starting a three-game series across the bay against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park on Friday.

“We kept fighting. That’s baseball,” said Gallo of the scoreless stretch. “Sometimes you’re going to get shut out and things aren’t going to go your way. Obviously, on the first pitch of the game Choo takes the shutout away automatically and it kind of gave us a little confidence.”

The Rangers had nine hits, including seven against A’s starter Edwin Jackson (4-3), after combining for five the previous two games. Beltre and Jurickson Profar each had two hits.

“It was good to see, especially before an off day to end on a good note,” Gallo said.

The A’s scored a run in the seventh and a run in the eighth to pull within 4-2. Cory Gearrin, who started the seventh, walked Matt Chapman and hit Khris Davis with two outs before Stephen Piscotty’s RBI double put Oakland on the board.

Alex Claudio took over and struck out Matt Olson to end the inning. In the eighth, a single and one-out double by pinch-hitter Jed Lowrie against Chris Martin pulled the A’s to within 4-2.

Martin stranded Lowrie at second with a fly ball to left and a strikeout of Ramon Laureano. On the fly out, Gallo lost his footing but recovered to make the catch.

Jose Leclerc loaded the bases in the ninth after two walks and a hit by pitch but struck out Nick Martini to secure the win and earn his sixth save. He struck Davis, the majors’ home run leader, after a leadoff walk to Chapman.

“I thought all of our guys did a good job against [Davis] today,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said of Davis, who was 0 for 2 with a walk and hit by pitch. “I thought it was a really nice confidence boost for him, especially in that situation after walking Chapman. [Chapman] laid off some really good sliders in that set. Credit to him.

“But credit to Jose to come back and get Davis and then throughout the entire inning, how it played out, to get back in focus and record the last out there. That was big for him. One that I know will go a long ways moving forward with him.”

This story was originally published August 22, 2018 at 5:40 PM.