For much of the game in Thursday, the Oakland Athletics held a lead over the Texas Rangers. Although the Rangers threatened late, the A's were able to force extra innings and wind up with a gutty 5-4 win over the first-place home team.
The A's took a 3-0 lead right away as they plated a trio of runs on RBI doubles by Jonny Gomes and Kurt Suzuki in the top of the first inning. The Rangers cut that lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning on a two-run Mitch Moreland homer.
Starter Brandon McCarthy hung in admirably until the bottom of the sixth inning, when the Rangers tied things up with Moreland's second homer of the day and went ahead 4-3 on a sacrifice bunt by Elvis Andrus.
McCarthy ended up going 5.1 innings and was charged with four runs on eight hits and three walks. Texas starter Matt Harrison had an almost identical line but was charged with three runs rather than four.
Josh Reddick stayed hot as he lashed his10th home run of the season to right field to tie the game again, 4-4, in the top of the seventh inning.
The bullpens would hold things there through the end of the ninth inning and the bonus baseball began. Oakland rapped out three singles in the top of the 10th inning, the last by Kila Ka'aihue that gave the A's the lead. Brian Fuentes came in for the save and only needed to face four batters to seal the Oakland victory.
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