The Rangers’ attempt at winning four games in a row and keeping their new manager’s MLB record unblemished fell short as Oakland bested Texas 5-1 Tuesday night in Arlington. The Rangers’ baserunning blunders in the middle innings cost them a chance to rally for a win.
“They’ve been addressed,” interim manager Tony Beasley said of the mistakes. “We have to address the things we didn’t execute tonight.”
Beasley said the mental errors cost the Rangers a chance to rally after going down 3-0 in the first few innings of the contest at Globe Life Field.
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the fourth and the fifth inning,” he said.
The Rangers — who batted 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left eight runners on base against the A’s — ran themselves out of the fourth and fifth innings by getting caught up and then out on the basepath, and instead of closing Oakland’s early 3-0 lead came away with bupkis in those frames.
The lone Ranger run of the night came in the bottom of the sixth inning after consecutive singles by Adolis Garcia, Nathaniel Lowe (extending his on-base streak to 21 games), and Jonah Heim. Heim’s single up the third base plated Garcia for RBI No.41 in his sophomore season.
Lowe would go 3-for-4 in the loss and increases his batting average on the season to .291, good for 13th best in the AL as he climbs toward .300.
Kohei Arihara made his first start of the season for Texas and, with next to no run support, watched his record fall to 0-1 after throwing 96 pitches (56 for strikes) over 5.2 innings. The 30-year-old righty allowed eight hits, including a homer, leading to three earned runs with three walks and six strikeouts.
Arihara was called up to make his 2022 Rangers debut after spending the entire season with Triple-A Round Rock. Over 18 games, he had a 3-6 record with a 4.88 ERA (14 starts), according to the team. He’s been dealing with injuries but was composed on Tuesday night.
While the Rangers squandered opportunities on offense, the much-maligned bullpen did what it could to keep Texas relevant in the contest.
Arihara earned two outs in the sixth inning after a bang-bang, 4-6-3 double play by Marcus Semien, Corey Seager, and Lowe got him out of a two-on, one-out jam. Taylor Hearn relieved Arihara in the top of the sixth, inheriting a runner from the Rangers starter.
Hearn escaped his first inning of work unscathed but gave up a two-out, two-run homer in the seventh to former Ranger Elvis Andrus, who received a generous round of applause for his efforts from some of the 15,260 in attendance in Arlington.
Garrett Richards took the mound at the top of the ninth, retiring three batters with two groundouts and a strikeout.
Andrus’ seventh-inning homer pushed Oakland’s lead to 5-1 and a 1-1 series tie with Texas with two more contests to go. The first pitch for Wednesday night’s tilt is scheduled for 7:05 p.m., with  Adam Oller (1-5, 7.26) throwing for Oakland and rookie Cole Ragans (0-1, 4.82) penciled in for the Rangers.
