A's Take Two Of Three From Rangers

Texas fails to extend division lead, allows Oakland to keep A.L. West hopes alive. A's second-baseman Mark Ellis (above) homered in the last game of the series, an 8-3 Oakland win. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

After the Texas Rangers (73-57) dished out a 7-3 beatdown Friday night against the Oakland A's (65-64), a series that looked so promising for Texas was turned on it's head over the final two games. The A's outscored the Rangers by a total of 13-2 over the last two games of the series, shrinking the American League West division lead to 7.5 games.

"It's big as far as momentum is concerned," said Dallas Braden, who pitched the A's to a win in game two of the series. "It's big to come back and swing the bats well, play defense well. Obviously those things are a huge part of any kind of push you want to make."

Oakland certainly pushed it's way back into the division-conversation in winning the final two games of the series and A's pitching led the way.

A's starters Gio Gonzalez and Braden shut the Rangers down over the final two games, combining to pitch 15 innings, while allowing only two runs. Braden threw a four-hitter Saturday night for his second career complete-game shutout. Gonzales gave the A's six innings Sunday afternoon, allowing two runs on five hits for the game. Josh Hamilton (two-run homer) knocked in the only two runs over the final two games off the series.

"I was just trying to follow in the footsteps behind a guy who pitched a great game," Gonzalez said. "The Rangers are a great hitting team, but we've been doing our homework. We sat down and went through it with Dallas [Braden]. He gave me a pep talk on each one of them and it worked."

Oakland continues to play Texas tough, winning eight of the 15 games between the two teams this season. The A's have pitching staff that rivals any team in the Majors. If you allow them to score runs early, which the Rangers did in the final two games, it will come back to bite you and it did in the form of a 2-1 series defeat.

Texas takes to the road for three games, taking on the Kansas City Royals starting Monday night. K.C. is 55-75 this season, fourth in the A.L. Central, but has won six of it's last nine home games.

C.J. Wilson (13-5, 3.02 ERA) gets the start for Texas, while Kyle Davies (6-8, 5.41) will take the mound for the Royals. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.

News and Notes:

• After scoring only two runs in the last 22 innings against the A's, help is on the way for Texas. Two heavy hitters are expected to be back in the Rangers' lineup within the next week. Nelson Cruz (strained left hamstring) is expected to be back with the team Monday after a weekend rehab assignment. While Ian Kinsler (strained groin) is expected to return to the lineup by Friday, just in time for a three-game series in Minnesota against the Twins.
  

(Portions of this article were taken from The Associated Press)