The Oakland Athletics continued to ping pong around the .500 mark as they defeated the Texas Rangers 7-2 Sunday afternoon and improved to 14-14. The A’s have been over the .500 mark one time this season, but otherwise have bounced between .500 and two games below .500. Much of this has come from wildly inconsistent offense, which was not an issue today as the A’s gave Gio Gonzalez plenty of support.
Oakland jumped on top of the Rangers early thanks to some timely hitting. Conor Jackson hit an RBI double in the first to knock in two runs, followed by a Kurt Suzuki RBI single. Coco Crisp added a run with a two-out RBI-single in the second to give the A’s a 4-0 lead. The A’s added two more in the third with a Matsui double and Cliff Pennington single. They capped their scoring with a Suzuki RBI single in the seventh.
Gio Gonzalez was efficient behind those runs as he went into the seventh inning. After giving up a run in the sixth, Gonzalez left with men on first and second and two outs in the seventh. Ian Kinsler hit an RBI double that should have plated two, but Mitch Moreland was held up at third base. The Rangers opened the ninth with a pair of singles off Craig Breslow, but Brian Fuentes retired the side to escape the jam.
The two teams wrap up their four game series with a rare Monday get-away day game. Brandon McCarthy faces Derek Holland at 12:35pm pacific. The game will be broadcast on CSN California.