G32: Rangers lose to A's 3-1

• Rookie pitcher Greg Smith was quite dominating for the A's.
• Josh Hamilton lost a fly ball in the seventh which led to Oakland's three runs.

Those are about it for the two major points to this game. Scott Feldman started the game, and took the big hard luck loss. His first six innings pitched, he allowed NO runs, and only three singles. Then in the seventh came the non error error that led to the three runs Oakland scored. That was a shame, as Feldman deserved better than that. At least call it an error so the runs are unearned.

Offensively, there was only one thing to talk about for the Rangers. That was German Duran's solo home run in the third inning. The Rangers had just four hits total. German's home run, a double by Brandon Boggs, and singles by Michael Young & Gerald Laird. That's it. This was of course due to Greg Smith. Smith went six innings, striking out ten Rangers, walking two, and allowing just three hits. A quite masterful performance. Smith's bullpen mates followed him up by not allowing any more runs, but Houston Street almost blew that. He obviously felt he was being squeezed, and got into a minor shouting match with the home plate umpire. I was a bit bummed he didn't get ejected, as it might have turned the tide.

Duran's home run gave us a 1-0 lead at that time which held up for awhile. However, as the game progressed, you kept getting that feeling (well, I did) that one run was not near enough - you kept waiting for the meltdown. Normally, those meltdowns involve the other team getting five to seven (or more) runs, so the fact it was just three was nice, but still. Never thought we'd win 1-0.

Still, we took the series, and that's always a positive thing.