Sports Radio Service


		A’s beat Rangers, 4-1 By George Devine, Sr. May 5, 2010

	The A’s won their three-game series against the Rangers at the Coliseum, and regained the lead in the AL West by half a game, winning the getaway game 4-1 before an enthusiastic afternoon crowd of over 15,000. Oakland’s Trevor Cahill came into the game 0-1 with a 10.80 ERA and by day’s end was 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA (5 ip, 5 h, 1 r, 0 er, 3 w, 4 k). Fellow RHP Dolby Lewis came in 3-0 with a 2.76 ERA and came out the loser at 3-1 and a 3.03 ERA (6 ip, 5 h, 3 er, 3 w, 6 k, 1 hr). Andrew “Daily” Bailey pitched the final inning and picked up his fifth save of the year. The Athletics wasted no time as leadoff batter Cliff Pennington singled to center, advanced on Daric Barton’s ground-rule double to the deep part of the wall, and came home on Ryan Sweeney’s groundout. Kevin Kouzmanoff also grounded out, scoring Barton. From that point on it was a matter of holding the lead, which Cahill and the Oakland defense did. In the fourth, Eric Patterson added an insurance run with a solo homer 362 feet to right center. After the seventh inning stretch, Rajai Davis finished the Elephants’ scoring as he singled to left, advanced on Pennington’s 1-3 sacrifice and came home on Barton’s base hit. The lone Texas run came in the sixth when Michael Young reached first on an error by Kouzmanoff, and made his way around on base hits by Josh Hamilton (bouncing off Barton en route to right) and Vladimir Guerrero. The A’s next host the Tampa Bay Rays, who currently own the best record in the AL, on Friday, May 7 at 7:05 p.m. PDT. Gio Gonzalez (3-1, 3.45 ERA) will face fellow southpaw David Price (3-1, 2.34 ERA). The A’s have recalled right-handed pitcher Henry Rodriguez from Triple-A Sacramento and optioned right-handed pitcher Vin Mazzaro to Sacramento, the club announced today. Rodriguez was 0-1 with three saves in eight relief appearances with Sacramento and did not allow an earned run in 9.1 innings. He struck out 14 and walked just three and now has 435 career strikeouts in 339.2 minor league innings, an average of 11.53 strikeouts per nine innings. The 23-year old right-hander yielded a .100 batting average, including .050 (1 for 20) against right-handed hitters. Rodriguez made his Major League debut with Oakland last year and posted a 2.25 ERA and .235 opponents batting average in three games in September. Mazzaro was recalled from Sacramento yesterday and started against Texas last night, allowing four runs on two hits and four walks in 3.0 innings. He ended up with a no decision in the A’s 7-6 win. Mazzaro was 1-1 with a 2.59 ERA in five games, four starts, at Sacramento. He surrendered just one home run in 24.1 innings and allowed a .239 batting average, including .167 with runners in scoring position.