One swing, one wild-card spot
Wyatt Langford did not wait around. First pitch from J.T. Ginn in the sixth, 421 feet to left-centre, and the Texas Rangers had the lead they had been chasing all night in West Sacramento. The two-run homer capped a 3-for-4 evening and carried Texas to a 5-3 win over the Athletics.
It also ended a four-game slide and pushed the Rangers back into the third and final American League wild-card spot, in a race that keeps changing hands week to week.
Texas had trailed by three. Jake Burger doubled to open the fifth and came home on Nicky Lopez’s one-out single to centre. Brandon Nimmo led off the sixth with a double, Corey Seager grounded a single through the middle to score him, and Langford finished the job on the very next pitch.
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Gore ends a month of frustration
MacKenzie Gore had gone four starts without a win. He was not spotless on Saturday, giving up three runs and eight hits across 5 2/3 innings with five strikeouts and two walks, but he handed the game over in one piece and the bullpen did the rest. Chase Silseth got the final out of the sixth. Jakob Junis threw a perfect seventh. Jacob Latz walked a batter in the eighth and cruised through the ninth, 36 pitches for his 24th save and his seventh of two innings this season.
Three and a third hitless innings from the relief corps. That is how a team that had lost four in a row starts feeling better about itself.
The Rangers added insurance in the ninth. Evan Carter doubled with one out, Burger walked against Scott Blewett, and pinch hitter Jarred Kelenic singled to centre.
Bolte’s homer, and an A’s side going nowhere
The Athletics had their moment in the second. Henry Bolte ripped a full-count curveball down the left-field line, the ball clipped the left side of the foul pole inches above the wall and ricocheted back into foul territory. The umpires called it foul. Replay overturned them, and Bolte had a three-run blast and a 3-0 lead. He finished 3-for-4.
It led nowhere. Ginn (8-7) allowed four runs on eight hits over six innings, striking out seven without a walk, and the Athletics have now lost 16 of their last 20. Nine of their last 10 at home have gone the same way. Alika Williams added two hits on a night that changed very little for them.
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