Rangers recap: Beltre’s two homers power Texas as AL West showdown looms

Adrian Beltre hit two homers and had a season-high five RBI to lead the Rangers over the Athletics 12-4 Sunday at Globe Life Park. With the win, the Rangers remained 1 1/2 games back of the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West. The Astros rallied for five runs in the ninth inning to beat the Angels Sunday afternoon. The Rangers and Astros begin a four-game series in Arlington on Monday.

Pitching: Chi Chi Gonzalez held Oakland to three runs (one earned) on two hits through 5 1/3 innings. He left leading 8-2 after a two-run triple by Danny Valencia in the sixth. Keone Kela took over and struck out Brett Lawrie before an infield single off third baseman Adrian Beltre’s glove allowed a third run to score. Kela came back to strikeout Jake Smolinski to end the inning. The A’s added a run in the seventh on a solo homer from Carson Blair, his first major-league hit. It came against Andrew Faulkner. The A’s loaded the bases in the eighth but Jake Diekman worked out of the jam to keep the score locked at 9-4. Ross Ohlendorf pitched the ninth to close it out.

Hitting: Shin-Soo Choo homered to dead center in the first to give Texas a 1-0 lead. Beltre’s two-run homer to left-center made it 3-0 in the fourth. The Rangers scored five and batted around in the fifth. Beltre’s three-run homer gave Texas a 6-0 lead. Elvis Andrus’ bases-loaded single up the middle scored two more runs to make it 8-0. Delino DeShields led off the sixth with a double and scored on Choo’s single, his third hit of the game, to make it 9-3. Rougned Odor’s three-run homer made it 12-4 in the eighth.

Notable: Beltre collected his 27th-career regular-season multi-homer game. He has 26 with two and one with three ... Beltre has a season-high five RBI ... Fielder had his first multi-hit game since Sept. 1 ... he has 50 for the season ... Rangers’ four homers match their season high. First four-homer game at home since April 21, 2013.

This story was originally published September 13, 2015 at 5:56 PM with the headline "Rangers recap: Beltre’s two homers power Texas as AL West showdown looms."