Bullpen, Lewis can’t stop Athletics from sweeping Rangers

Two remarkable stretches by the starting rotation helped move the Texas Rangers from last place to second place in the American League West and should have turned attention to the fine work of pitching coach Mike Maddux.

The rotation’s club-record streaks of 12 consecutive quality starts and 17 straight starts with no more than three earned runs combined to serve another purpose: taking the spotlight away from a bullpen that continues to have its issues and needs to be reinforced if the Rangers expect to be serious contenders this season.

Keone Kela and Sam Freeman combined to allow three two-out runs in the seventh inning, and the Rangers’ good day against nemesis Sonny Gray was flushed away in a 6-3 loss and a three-game sweep by the Oakland A’s.

The loss was the fifth straight for the Rangers, with the bullpen heavily involved in three of them. After the relievers responded positively to the no-roles philosophy of manager Jeff Banister, they have backtracked and again made adding relief help the top priority for general manager Jon Daniels.

“We’d like to see consistency out of all of our guys out of the bullpen,” Banister said. “That’s why they’re out there. They need to come in and do what they do and throw strikes. These guys are going to continue to work, and we’re going to continue giving them the ball and keep bringing them in.”

Wasted in the loss was a 3-for-4 day by Mitch Moreland and a nine-hit, three-run game against Gray, who entered with a 1.95 ERA and left with a 4-0 record against the Rangers at Globe Life Park.

The Rangers held two leads, 2-0 and 3-2, that starter Colby Lewis couldn’t keep.

Oakland took its first lead when Kela (4-5) entered to start the seventh in a 3-3 tie. He promptly got the first two outs of the seventh before allowing hits to Billy Burns and Eric Sogard.

Freeman entered to face Stephen Vogt in a left-on-left matchup, and got the Oakland catcher to hit a soft liner back toward the mound. Freeman reached for it instinctively, which can’t be faulted, and the ball hit off the pinkie of his glove and bounced into no-man’s land.

Had he missed the ball completely, shortstop Elvis Andrus would have had an easy play for the final out.

“I went back and looked at the replay, and it made me sick to my stomach seeing what was behind me,” Freeman said.

Freeman then walked Ben Zobrist to force in the go-ahead run, and the lefty-hitting Josh Reddick singled to right for two more runs.

The Rangers’ bullpen ERA is 3.33 over the past 11 games and 3.76 over the past 35 games, but 4.35 this season. That’s 14th in the 15-team American League, and the bullpen didn’t do its job in three of the past four losses.

“That’s just something that happens through the course of the season,” Freeman said. “Just the ebbs and flows. Hopefully, we get back on track.”

Lewis isn’t without fault, twice failing to hold leads that he had just been handed.

After Moreland’s homer and a two-out RBI single by Robinson Chirinos in the fourth, Lewis walked three A’s in the fifth and gave up a two-out, two-run single to Sam Fuld to erase a 2-0 lead.

Moreland delivered again in the fifth, this time with a two-out RBI single, but the first three A’s hitters reached in the sixth. Only one scored, but Lewis pinned the loss on his inability to protect the leads.

“The fifth is what I’m more disappointed in myself,” Lewis said. “I’ve got to have a clean inning, and I didn’t. Put it on me. I was pitching to get them out every time, and it felt like in the fifth inning they just went up there and took. Of course, there were some pitches that weren’t even close.”

The Rangers were scheduled to fly to Toronto after the game ahead of a three-game weekend series against the Blue Jays, possessors of the highest-scoring offense in baseball and traditionally a tough matchup for the Rangers.

The bullpen will face another test as the Rangers try to keep within striking distance of division-leading Houston.

“There’s still some young, inexperienced guys in the bullpen that are gaining experience, that are going to get better and move forward,” Banister said. “We know that there are going to be stretches like this. How you react to them, how you bounce back from them, how you answer back is probably the most important thing.

“We have an opportunity to get on that plane and go to Toronto, play that first game in Toronto, put a foot down there, play well and get this momentum going back in the right direction.”

This story was originally published June 25, 2015 at 5:39 PM with the headline "Bullpen, Lewis can’t stop Athletics from sweeping Rangers."