3-5 - Beltre makes more history as Rangers split in Oakland with 6-3 win

Martin Perez is back and he was very Martin Perez-y in his debut after missing the first week of the season with a case of got-spooked-by-a-bovine-and-broke-my-elbow during the winter.

‘Teen went 5 ¹⁄₃ on just 76 pitches but was getting knocked around a little allowing ten hits to the Athletics, including at least one in each of his innings of work. Perez didn’t walk anyone, struck out just one batter, and induced a double play so, yeah, pretty much what you’d expect from a Martin Perez start. No bull.

Perhaps the key for Perez was the fact that of his ten hits allowed, only one went for extra bases. Jed Lowrie’s third inning double eventually helped the A’s score the second of three runs Perez allowed on the day in his winning debut.

As for the bats, after a four run outburst in the second inning it looked like same ol’, same ol’ at the plate for the Rangers today before Shin-Soo Choo hit his second straight ninth inning home run in this series — a two-run shot — to give the Rangers some breathing room.

Texas scored four runs in the top of the second inning and then just kind of shut things down until Choo’s big blast. After scoring a run on three hits to begin the second inning, Texas was aided by a two-run scoring Ryan Rua sac bunt attempt that A’s starter Daniel Mengden threw away for a costly three-base error.

A Drew Robinson RBI single made it 4-0, and, though it looked like one of those games where the Rangers would go up early and then let the opponent crawl back to eventually overtake them, the four runs ultimately would have been enough while the Choo home run ended up being icing on the series-splitting cake.

Player of the Game: Adrian Beltre got the four-run second inning rally started by doubling to lead things off and in doing so became the all-time Latin-born hits leader in MLB history. So, you know, that’s pretty good.

On the day, Beltre was the only Rangers to have more than one hit as he also singled in top of the eighth. Beltre finished his afternoon a living legend while going 2-for-3 with a walk and a run scored.

Up Next: Texas is back in Arlington to open up a three game set against the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rangers will turn to Matt Moore in his second outing of the season opposite RHP Marco Estrada of Toronto. First pitch from The Ballpark is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT.