Mazara's Late HR Saves Rangers From Mistakes - kram438's Dynasty

kram438's Dynasty Blog

Mazara's Late HR Saves Rangers From Mistakes

Posted on July 31, 2018 at 01:06 AM.

The Texas Rangers nearly gave away Monday's series opener in Oakland, committing three errors and giving up a go-ahead solo home run in the seventh, but Nomar Mazara's two-run home run in the top of the eighth gave Texas back the lead for good as the Rangers went on to win the opener, 3-2, at Oakland Colesium.

Multiple Texas errors in the sixth led to the A's (5-9) first run and tied the game. Rajai Davis reached on a dribbling infield single to the mound, then ran all the way to third with one out when Rangers starter Tyson Ross' (1-1) pick-off throw went down the right field line.

He got Marcus Semien to line out for the second out of the inning and was nearly out of the jam when he got Khris Davis to hit a ground ball to third base. But Joey Gallo threw the ball wide of first base, pulling James Loney off the bag and allowing Khris Davis to reach safely and allowing Rajai Davis to score from third, making it 1-1.

Ross' next mistake in the seventh was falling behind 3-0 to Stephen Vogt. Not wanting to walk the leadoff man in a tie game in the late innings, Ross had to come into the strikezone with a fastball, and Vogt made him pay by homering off the right-field foul pole, giving the A's a 2-1 lead.

But Mazara righted everything for the Rangers in the eighth. The rally started with Rougned Odor getting called safe at first for an infield single after an umpire's review overturned the original ruling of out. He then stole second to set up Mazara's swing. Facing new-into-the-game reliever Santiago Casilla and an 0-2 count, Mazara bombed a ball over the centerfield fence just to the left of dead center, giving the Rangers back the advantage.

Ross earned his first victory of the season in three starts and dropped his ERA below 4.00. He no-hit the A's for the first four innings until Vogt led off the fifth with a double.

The Rangers look to clinch a series victory in game two Tuesday with Andrew Cashner (1-0, 1.17 ERA) on the mound versus Chris Bassitt (1-1, 2.08 ERA).

Texas Rangers at Oakland Athletics
Apr 17, 2017	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Texas (5-8)	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	3	11	3
Oakland (5-9)	0	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	2	3	0
W: Tyson Ross (1-1) L: Santiago Casilla (0-1) S: Sam Dyson (1)

Texas Rangers
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Elvis Andrus, SS	5	0	3	0	0	1	0	.328
Carlos Gomez, CF	4	1	1	1	0	1	0	.260
Nomar Mazara, DH	4	1	2	2	0	1	1	.370
Rougned Odor, 2B	4	0	1	0	0	1	0	.351
Joey Gallo, 3B	4	0	0	0	0	3	0	.167
Jonathan Lucroy, C	4	0	1	0	0	0	0	.283
Shin-Soo Choo, RF	3	0	0	0	0	2	0	.340
Mike Napoli, PH-LF	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.300
James Loney, 1B	4	1	2	0	0	2	0	.333
Jared Hoying, LF-RF	4	0	1	0	0	2	0	.233
TEAM TOTALS	37	3	11	3	0	13	1
BATTING: HR: Mazara (3) RBI: Gomez (10), Mazara 2 (8) SF: Gomez GIDP: Odor
BASERUNNING: SB: Gomez (1)
FIELDING: E: Ross (1), Odor (1), Gallo (1)

Oakland Athletics
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Rajai Davis, CF	3	1	1	0	1	1	0	.268
Marcus Semien, SS	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	.158
Khris Davis, LF	4	0	0	0	0	1	0	.327
Mark Canha, 1B	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	.245
Stephen Vogt, C	4	1	2	1	0	0	1	.268
Ryon Healy, DH	4	0	0	0	0	2	0	.333
Trevor Plouffe, 3B	3	0	0	0	0	2	0	.250
Alejandro De Aza, RF	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.226
Joey Wendle, 2B	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
TEAM TOTALS	32	2	3	1	1	7	1
BATTING: 2B: Vogt (2) HR: Vogt (3) RBI: Vogt (4)

Texas Rangers
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Tyson Ross (W, 1-1)	7.0	3	2	1	0	6	1	3.48
Keone Kela (H, 1)	1.0	0	0	0	1	1	0	7.94
Sam Dyson (S, 1)	1.0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5.40
TEAM TOTALS	9.0	3	2	1	1	7	1

Oakland Athletics
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Daniel Mengden	6.0	6	1	1	0	9	0	10.38
Daniel Coulombe	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	9.00
Santiago Casilla (L, 0-1)	0.2	3	2	2	0	0	1	5.79
Sean Doolittle	1.1	1	0	0	0	2	0	0.00
TEAM TOTALS	9.0	11	3	3	0	13	1