The Rangers managed a win in the final game of the A’s series, which is disapponting, as we needed to sweep the A’s to have any realistic chance of getting back in the race.
However, you couldn’t fault Vicente Padilla in this series. He certainly held up his end of the bargain in the finale Sunday. He was strong, going 8 innings, giving up just four hits, while striking out eight. He did walk four, which is a bit high, but it didn’t impact him, as he pitched a shutout. Aki followed up for his 28th save of the season – that’s really all that needs be said about our pitching, it was quite good this day.
Oakland starter Dan Haren wasn’t bad, either going 7 giving up three runs on 7 hits with twelve strikeouts. But Padilla bested him, and you only need win by one run. It was enough to salvage something, but man it feels like too little too late.
While we got some great pitching, our offense was pretty flat (Matthews & Young had 5 of the 7 team total hits alone), and it just feels like “a little late to the party for this kind of game, guys”.