Rangers hope visiting A’s cure bats’ ills

The Texas Rangers hope returning home will help their scoring woes as they square off against the Athletics on Monday in the first of a four-game American League West series in Arlington, Texas.

It will be a battle of left handers, at least at the beginning, as JP Sears (3-2, 3.21 ERA) will start for the Athletics and Texas counters with the resurgent Patrick Corbin (2-0, 3.77).

Monday’s clash is the first of a seven-game homestand for Texas that includes games Friday-Sunday against Seattle. The Athletics will play their next seven games on the road, with their trip continuing Friday-Sunday in Miami.

The Rangers return home after losing four of six games in Northern California last week. Texas dropped a 3-2 decision to San Francisco on Sunday, losing their third straight series.

Texas got a two-out, two-run single from Marcus Semien in the first inning on Sunday and then could not find the hits at the right time to score again. The Rangers eventually lost in the bottom of the ninth on a single and two throwing errors that allowed the Giants to capture the game and the series.

Texas has scored more than four runs just once in its past nine games and is last in the majors in runs scored (with 86) and 29th of 30 teams in on-base percentage.

“Nobody is content — not the players or the coaches,” Rangers coach Bruce Bochy said. “They are all working at this. They are all going hard. That’s all you can ask of them. The results aren’t what they want, so we’ve got to stay with this and stay working to try to come out of this.”

Corbin has been excellent in his three starts for Texas, allowing two runs (both on solo home runs) on seven hits over five innings in an 8-5 Rangers’ win Tuesday in his most recent appearance. He struck out four and walked two and left with the team up 8-2.

Corbin has pitched twice in his career against the Athletics, winning both and forging a 2.25 ERA in 12 innings. He has allowed three runs on 11 hits while striking out 11.

The Athletics took two of three games against Texas last week in West Sacramento, winning the series on a walk-off single by Jacob Wilson in the ninth inning in the get-away game on Thursday. Wilson had a home run and then a game-tying RBI in the team’s 6-5 victory over the White Sox on Friday.

“We have the capability to score in a ton of ways, and Jacob has been a big part of that success,” Athletics outfielder Brent Rooker said. “We’ve shown flashes of that, for sure. We’ve done a good job with some timely hitting. Now we are just looking to be more consistent.”

The Athletics head to the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex after a 3-2 win in 10 innings at home versus Chicago on Sunday. Luis Urias crushed a walk-off, two-run dinger to give the A’s a series win in the three-game set.

Sears stymied the Rangers in a victory in his last time out, allowing two runs on five hits in a 5-2 Athletics’ home win Wednesday. He walked one and struck out five in five innings of work, producing a solid follow up to his six shutout innings in an 8-0 win at the Chicago White Sox on April 17.

Sears has faced Texas nine times in his career, racking up a 5-1 record with a 4.10 ERA over 48 1/3 innings. He has allowed 23 runs on 49 hits while striking out 45 in those nine starts.

–Field Level Media