Texas Rangers Comeback Bid Falls Short 4-2

Oakland Athletics center fielder Ryan Sweeney celebrates after robbing Ian Kinsler of a 3 run home run that would have put the Rangers in the lead, in the eighth inning.

This has been a rarity early in the season, the Rangers offense couldn't come through as they left 12 people on base in a 4-2 loss to the Oakland Athletics. Oakland pitcher Dallas Braden (W 3-2) pitched five innings and spread out 5 hits and 4 walks over 5 innings. Texas was able to get on base at will, getting those runners to home plate was the problem.

The fifth inning was indicative of the Rangers inability to bat runners in. The inning started out with a lead-off single to left by Ian Kinsler, followed by a double to the left field wall by Marlon Byrd. This advanced Kinsler to third, so the Rangers had runners at 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs. Michael Young followed with a pop out to second base then Andruw Jones was intentionally walked, loading the bases with 1 out in the inning. The next two Rangers up to bat were 5th and 6th place hitters Hank Blalock and Nelson Cruz. Both of these players have power, as evidenced by their 6 home runs each and Cruz is second on the team in RBI's with 17 while Blalock is 3rd at 14. Needless to say, these are two extremely capable hitters. Blalock popped out harmlessly to 2nd and Cruz struck out swinging to end the inning.

Vicente Padilla pitched 6 innings and had to use every single one of his pitches (even his seldom used "sweeping" curve ball that was thrown between 59-62 mph) to get through 6 while only allowing 3 ER. He allowed 8 hits and 2 walks in those 6 innings, so he had to battle in order to keep this game close; and he did.

Padilla had to get out of a bases loaded jam right off the bat in the first inning. Home run thief Ryan Sweeney lead off with a single to lead off the game and, after Athletics SS Orlando Cabrera grounded out, a walk to DH Jack Cust. Padilla rebounded by getting LF Matt Holliday to fly out to right but then hit Catcher Kurt Suzuki to load the bases. Travis Buck helped Padilla's cause by striking out looking to end the inning. He pretty much cruised through the next 5 innings with only a sacrifice fly in the 6th by first baseman Landon Powell, after a Kurt Suzuki double, put Oakland on the board 1-0.

Vicente faulted again to begin the 7th inning, he allowed 3 consecutive singles to load the bases again and end his night after 100 pitches. Eddie Guardado came in and immediately walked the only batter he was brought in to face on 4 pitches, allowing Oakland to go up 2-0. Guardado was pretty angry after this event and (blamed) took it out on the umpire who ended up throwing him out of the game after he had almost made it back to the bullpen. Jason Jennings came in next for relief and got Matt Holliday to ground into a fielder's choice, the fielder (Michael Young) chose to get the runner coming home. Kurt Suzuki followed with another Oakland sacrifice fly which brought the score to 3-0 Athletics. Jennings allowed another single, but not another run as he got pinch hitter Jason Giambi to pop out to end the inning. Jennings closed out the eighth well, pitching a 1-2-3 inning that gave the Rangers a chance to come back in the bottom of the eighth.

The Rangers, who lead the Majors at the start of the game with 39 home runs already this season, led off the eighth with a home run from Hank Blalock. This put them 2 runs away at 3-1. After another Nelson Cruz strikeout, Chris Davis hit a broken bat bloop single to right and then Taylor Teagarden followed with another strikeout. With two outs in the inning, David Murphy pinch hit for Elvis Andruws and was able to come back from down 0-2 in the count to coax an 8 pitch walk, thus bringing up Ian Kinsler as the go-ahead run. After fouling off the first 3 pitches he saw, Ian took a ball and was down in the count 1 ball to 2 strikes. Kinsler unloaded on the next pitch, hitting it to deep center field, looking to hit yet another big home run for this Texas team. Oakland CF Ryan Sweeney had other ideas as he jumped, reached up over the wall in center field, and brought the ball back into the park; ending the inning. Ian Kinsler saw this as he was rounding first and threw down his batting helmet in disgust.

Jason Jennings came back in for the ninth and got the first 2 outs of the inning before allowing Matt Holiday to hit a home run to center field. Jennings got Kurt Suzuki to ground out to end the ninth.

Marlon Byrd lined out to the shortstop to lead off the bottom of the ninth for the Rangers. Then on a controversial play, Michael Young was tagged out at third after hitting a pitch to deep left. Ron Washington argued the call, obviously to no avail. Andruw Jones hit a home run which brought the Rangers closer at 4-2, but Hank Blalock followed with a strikeout.

Random stats:

• The Texas Rangers struck out 11 times as a team in the game.
  

• Vicente Padilla's ERA for the season was lowered to 7.42.

• The Rangers have now hit 41 home runs through the first 21 games of the season, a franchise record.

• Texas is 2.5 games back of the Ken Griffey Jr led Seattle Mariners for 1st in the A.L. West.

• The loss brought the Rangers record on the year to 10-11.