12-11 — Rangers can’t get out of Oakland fast enough, fall 6-5

Mid-week series in Oakland never seem to go well, and mid-week day games in Oakland seem to go especially unwell.

Thus we have today’s game, where Kyle Dowdy started in place of Drew Smyly, made it three innings with limited damage, turned things over to Jesse Chavez, who could only go a couple of innings, thus leading Chris Woodward to use tomorrow’s starter, Adrian Sampson, out of the pen.

That means tomorrow’s starter in Seattle is now TBD, though speculation on Twitter seems to see Taylor Hearn as the favorite.

And the bats did just enough to keep Texas in the game and lead to the A’s winning in walkoff fashion in the 9th, because that’s how things go in Oakland.

Player of the Game — Nomar Mazara, who had been slumping of late, had a pair of homers, which is always good.

Next up — The Rangers head to Seattle now to start a four game set at the Mariners.