53-52 - Adrian Sampson was mad, red, and nude on the mound in 5-4 loss to A’s

Remember when Adrian Sampson was A) good for some reason for like two weeks and B) unfortunately also suddenly baseball’s newest anti-fun recruit? It’s been a while, and Sampson wasn’t very good for long, so you might not remember it, but back in early June Sampson was coming off some of the best outings of his career and suddenly his britches were fitting a little tight as he got angry that Mark Canha took him deep in the second half of a doubleheader against Oakland that the Rangers would sweep.

It was actually pretty amusing then because after getting pissy that a big league hitter swatted a home run off him — Him! Adrian Sampson! — Sampson backed it up by tossing a complete game while keeping the Athletics off the board for the rest of the night. Even though Sampson was clearly in the wrong, as Canha barely even watched his home run take off before making his jog around the bases, it was funny because the Rangers won and the A’s were sour about it and that’s the true and best version of the universe.

The A’s had obviously been waiting weeks to get back at Sampson after he had deputized himself a dinger police officer. And so, they did. At every turn. And they did so not by throwing a baseball in anger at him, instead they just took him deep. Every person who had either been mad at Sampson or that Sampson himself had been angry with hit a home run — four in total, including Canha and Ramon Laureano whom Sampson beefed with — and Sampson even hit Canha with a pitch to prove that he’d also been mentally defeated as he resorted to practically assault.

Sampson had every power afforded to him to stop it simply by just getting Oakland hitters out but he couldn’t and so he ended up coming off as embarrassing as he barked at the Athletics who were just dunking on him all night.

Later, the Rangers hit Laureano in what could be conveniently called an accident in such a close game but it wasn’t a good look and I don’t recall a time since the Vicente Padilla years that the Rangers have looked so convincingly in the wrong and as much like villains/chumps as they have in this “feud.”

Anyhow, the Rangers almost came back anyway and I would have laughed long and hard if the A’s had lost tonight’s game after getting their revenge on Sampson because a Rangers last laugh is the best laugh of all but alas perhaps karmic justice was extremely against the Rangers in this one.

Player of the Game: Danny Santana hit a two-run triple :-3

Up Next: The Rangers and A’s close out this series with Texas still having a shot at a series win with RHP Pedro Payano currently listed as the starter against RHP Mike Fiers for Oakland. First pitch from the Coliseum is scheduled for 3:07 pm CT on Sunday afternoon.