21-23 - Rangers undeterred in 8-5 comeback victory over A’s

The Texas Rangers scored eight runs while the Oakland Athletics scored five runs.

After struggling to score for much of yesterday’s opener, the Rangers got out ahead 2-0 in the 1st inning to give their starting pitcher a rare early lead. It didn’t last for terribly long as the team was forced to scratch and claw their way back from a miserable 3rd inning where Jon Gray and defensive miscues allowed the A’s to score five runs.

From there, however, the pitching was near perfect and like last night, as the game grew late, the Rangers took over as they scored two runs in the 7th, one more in the 8th to tie the game, and then three runs in the 9th on two big two-out RBI singles from Andy Ibanez and Marcus Semien that gave the Rangers the lead by their eventual margin of victory.

The win moves Texas to just two games below .500, the closest to even that they’ve been since they were 17-19 on May 18 and also guarantees them a winning month of May.

Player of the Game: Congratulations to Kole Calhoun on career hit No. 1,000.

Up Next: The third game of this series will see LHP Taylor Hearn take the mound for Texas against LHP Zach Logue for Oakland.

Saturday afternoon’s first pitch from the Oakland Coliseum is scheduled for 3:07 pm CDT.