Thoughts on a 9-4 Rangers loss

A’s 9, Rangers 4

• This game was vexing on a number of levels.
• Matt Moore, pitching for, maybe, the right to stay in the rotation a little longer, was okay today. He gave up a pair of runs in the third, another in the fourth, didn’t look particularly sharp, couldn’t put goes away with two strikes, but, you know, it could have been worse. 3 runs allowed in 5 IP, pulled with a runner on and no one out in the sixth.
• Jose Leclerc, Matt Bush and Alex Claudio, three guys in danger of being optioned later this week, were summoned into the game at various times in the middle innings, and each of them managed to struggle without actually allowing any runs. Leclerc walked a pair, Bush gave up a hit to one of the two batters he faced, and Claudio allowed a hit and a walk to two of the four batters he faced. They managed to end up with 0s in the runs column, though, keeping the Rangers tied at 3 heading into the 9th.
• The 9th inning, of course, was a disaster, Kevin Jepsen allowing a first pitch home run to Marcus Simien to start the inning, and then things just escalating from there. Once things were out of hand Jesse Chavez was summoned to get the final out, and it took him four batters to do so. A winnable game turned into a blowout in the blink of an eye, and continued this recent trend of the bullpen being an unpredictable mess.
• Of course, the Rangers bats hadn’t done much up to that point anyway. A two run Robinson Chirinos home run was responsible for two-thirds of the scoring by Texas, but they had just had five hits until the ninth inning, when Adrian Beltre and Joey Gallo each doubled. Delino DeShields was 2 for 4 with a couple of steals, so that was good, but otherwise the offense was largely a big bag of bleah.
• For eight innings, this game was okay, if somewhat bland, and then everything went to hell in the ninth. And the Rangers are now 8-16 on the year.