Rangers power past A’s to push West lead to 3

Long before first pitch Wednesday night, the Texas Rangers knew that they had an opportunity to stretch their lead in the American League West.

Second-place Houston had lost to third-place Los Angeles, so a Rangers win over the last-place Oakland A’s would give the Rangers a three game lead with 11 games to play.

The outcome at Minute Maid Park didn’t make Colby Lewis pitch better or give Elvis Andrus and Adrian Beltre some extra power, but the Rangers knew that they would inch closer to the playoffs if they took care of things at O.co Coliseum.

That’s what they did, and in the process they continued to give the appearance of a team that’s a pretty good front-runner.

Andrus and Beltre launched three-run homers, and Lewis allowed two runs in six innings to win his 17th game in a 10-3 victory that reduced the Rangers’ magic number to clinch the division to eight.

“These guys really believe in playing their game, whether Houston had lost or Houston had won,” manager Jeff Banister said. “They don’t focus on the scoreboard. We need to continue that process. You’ve got to keep staying focused and be where your feet are.

“If we get to watching the TV and the scoreboard and the standings, then we’re putting ourselves somewhere else mentally. It’s about, ‘Hey, we’re here in Oakland.’ ”

The Rangers already know the Astros’ score Thursday. They’re idle, giving the Rangers a chance to add a half-game to their lead with a victory in the finale against the A’s and to assure themselves of being in first place in case of the worst-case scenario in their three-game weekend series at Houston.

Cole Hamels is pitching for the Rangers, who have won the past seven games he has started.

“I feel confident that our guys are going to come out with intensity and some energy,” Banister said. “It’s an opportunity to get a win on the board and go into Houston with some momentum. It’s crucial for us to play well tomorrow.”

The Rangers are playing as well as they have all season, maybe their best baseball of the season. They fell behind 1-0 in the third inning, and Lewis prevented more damage by leaving two in scoring position.

The offense responded in the next half-inning by scoring four times with one out. Mitch Moreland drove in the first run on a single to right field, plating Beltre, and Andrus followed with a blast past the 388-feet sign in left-center field.

The homer was his seventh of the season, a career-high. Though he has been skidding some this month, he has felt good at the plate the entire second half after fighting to find his timing early on.

“Now that I have my timing, I’m hitting balls that I have never hit in my career,” Andrus said. “As soon as I hit that, it felt good. I knew it was going a long way.”

Beltre clobbered a Felix Doubront pitch in the fifth to make it 7-1, and after the A’s cut it to 7-3, the Rangers tacked on three runs in the ninth. Rougned Odor’s 15th homer started the rally.

“They’ve learned how to win baseball games,” Banister said. “That’s important.”

Lewis (17-8) beat Oakland for the third time this season and afterward was mindful of the Rangers’ 2012 collapse at O.co Coliseum. He said that he has been mentioning the fade in the clubhouse as a reminder to not let up.

The Rangers haven’t. They have gained 5  1/2 games in the standings since Sept. 14, have won nine of their past 12 games, and are a season-best 13 games above .500.

They have taken on the appearance of a good front-runner.

“When we have the lead, we don’t surrender it back,” said Lewis, who won his third straight start. “We have to stay on the gas pedal. We have a chance to stretch things out.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 1:14 AM with the headline "Rangers power past A’s to push West lead to 3."