Beltre delivers walk-off homer as Rangers top A’s

Adrian Beltre’s second homer of the game was a two-run shot with two outs in the ninth inning, lifting the Texas Rangers to a 7-6 walk-off victory over the Oakland A’s and pushing their lead in the American League West to 3 1/2 games.

Beltre’s first homer came with two outs in seventh. The winning shot off Ryan Madson came two batters after Nomar Mazara lifted a single to right field.

Ian Desmond also homered for the Rangers.

Hitting: The Rangers knocked out A’s starter Daniel Mengden in the fifth inning, getting him for four runs on seven hits. ... Ian Desmond started it with a two-out solo homer in the first, his 19th of the season. That matches his 2015 output and gave him the team lead. ... Bobby Wilson’s bloop double in the fourth scored Adrian Beltre. ... Rougned Odor cut the Rangers’ deficit to 5-4 in the fifth with a two-out single, but Mitch Moreland, allowed to face reliever Mark Rzepczynski in a lefty-lefty matchup, grounded out two batters later to end the rally. ... Beltre’s third hit of the game was a solo homer with two outs in the seventh to make it 6-5. ... Beltre’s fourth hit was a biggie, a two-run walk-off homer.

Pitching: Martin Perez was still pumping in the six inning even though he had allowed five runs in the first three innings. ... The first two runs were unearned as a two-out throwing error by Elvis Andrus extended the inning, and Danny Valencia made the Rangers pay with a two-run homer. ... After a scoreless second, the A’s collected four doubles in the third, including three straight with two outs, to plate three runs for a 5-1 lead. ... After consecutive singles to start the fourth, Perez allowed one more hit over the final three innings. ... Perez posted a quality start. ... An error on Delino DeShields to start the seventh led to another unearned run off of Matt Bush as the A’s made it 6-4.

This story was originally published July 25, 2016 at 10:09 PM with the headline "Beltre delivers walk-off homer as Rangers top A’s."