OAKLAND, Calif. — Jed Lowrie singled home Cristian Pache with two out in the ninth inning Sunday as the Athletics avoided a four-game sweep with a 6-5 win over the Texas Rangers before a crowd of 8,342 at the Coliseum.
Pache, who has been hitting under .200 for weeks, opened the ninth with a single to right against losing pitcher Brett Martin (0-4). After Tony Kemp popped up a sacrifice bunt attempt, Pache went to second when Ramon Laureano hit a grounder off Martin, who retired Laureano at first.
Lowrie then delivered the game-winner to left center as the A’s improved their record to 20-30. Texas, hoping to reach .500, instead fell to 22-24 in a game in which the Rangers made five errors.
It shouldn’t have been that close, considering the Rangers made five errors and the Athletics out-hit Texas 14-7. But the A’s were a ghastly 3-for-20 with runners in scoring position — with Chad Pinder and Lowrie delivering in the final two innings — and left 126 runners on base.
“We talked about it in spring training, win or lose we’re going to fight,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said. “Getting down early, they showed their grind, they showed their fight. They just kept going and it’s a great sign.”
Lowrie told CSN-California he was simply trying to stay within himself and be direct to the ball, and hoped the game would make a difference for a team that had lost 14 of its previous 16 home games.
“For us to come back and get this walk-off win hopefully that’s some energy we can build off,” Lowrie said.
Chad Pinder, hitting for Seth Brown, drove in the tying run against reliever John King in the eighth. Then, with one out, Marcus Semien, playing second base, threw a ball in the dirt with the infield in and the bases loaded enabling Ramon Laureano to score the lead run.
The Rangers tied it against Dany Jimenez, however, when the reliever uncorked a wild pitch with two out that enabled Semien to score the tying run. Jimenez (2-2) ended up the winning pitcher after blowing the save. A’s relievers Sam Selmon, Domingo Acevedo, Sam Moll and Lou Trivino held Texas without a run after taking over for starter James Kapreilian.
Corey Seager and Brad Miller had solo home runs for Texas against Kaprielian, who opened the game by throwing 30 consecutive fastballs.
Kaprielian was done after 4 1/3 innings, giving up the two solo home runs and two more in the sixth inning on run-scoring singles from Miller and Semien, the latter on an 0-2 pitch driven to right field.
Semien’s hit was the end of Kaprielian’s day, with Selman, recalled from Triple-A Las Vegas Sunday, taking over.
Following four innings of abject frustration, the A’s rallied for three runs in the fifth to cut the Texas lead to 4-3.
Lowrie opened with a single, and after Brown struck out, Sean Murphy hit a ball down the line which got hung up against the wall, with Lowrie coming all the way around to score.
After Luis Barrera walked prompting the Rangers to remove starter Dane Dunning, Elvis Andrus doubled to left center to drive in the second run.
Kevin Smith attempted to squeeze home Barrera, but relief pitcher Dennis Santana fielded the ball with perfect momentum to tag Barrera before he reached the plate.
The A’s got a third run when third baseman Andy Ibanez couldn’t field a grounder down the line by Pache for an error.
The A’s reverted to squandering opportunities in the seventh, putting runners on first and third with no one out and failing to score. Brock Burke struck out Andrus and Smith before Matt Bush came on to induce a popup out of Pache.
In the first inning, the A’s got a runner to third with no one out and had the bases loaded with one out and didn’t score, with Murphy striking out against Dunning and Barrera hitting into a fielder’s choice.
A two-out rally in the second and Dunning wild pitch had runners at second and third, with Ramon Laureano striking out looking on a pitch high in the zone.
In the third, with a runner at second and two out, Barrera hit a screamer measured at 107.3 miles per hour. It went directly to Nathaniel Lowe at first base for the third out.
It got worse in the fourth. Andrus singled to lead off, Seager fumbled a potential double-play ball and Pache walked to load the bases with no one out.
The A’s again came up empty, with Tony Kemp popping to third and Laureano hitting into a double play. At that point the A’s through four innings had left eight runners on base and were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
The A’s cut off a potential run in the seventh inning when Brown’s glove flip to Murphy at the plate cut Andy Ibanez down at the plate on an attempted squeeze bunt attempt by Charlie Culberson.
