Have a day, Coco!

Athletics:  7  Rangers:  1

First I should apologize for the title, but I just had to do it.

It’s been over a month since the A’s last took a series from a team, the last one coming against the Tampa Bay Rays on May 6th.  The A’s not only took 3 out of 4 from their division rivals, but also outscored them 24-8 over the 4-game series.

Brandon McCarthy pitched another great game for the A’s today, having held the Rangers to 1 run over 7 innings while Grant Balfour and Jerry Belvins shut the door on them in the 8th and 9th.

The team got on the board early on an RBI single from Seth Smith, but it was in the fourth inning when they broke the lead wide open by scoring 4 runs off of Yu Darvish.

Lines of the Day:

• Brandon McCarthy:  7 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 0 BB, 5 SO.  After starting the season 0-3 in his first 5 starts, McCarthy is now 4-0 over his last 5.  Coming off of a shoulder injury, he is still limited in his pitch count, but threw 88 pitches today, 59 which were for strikes.
• Coco Crisp:  4 AB, 2 H, 1 R, 4 RBI, 1 BB.  It’s been a rough season for Coco this season so far, but today he drove in 4 of the 7 runs and also hit his first home run of the season.

Ugly Lines of the Day:

• Josh Reddick:  4 AB, 0 H, 3 SO.  I almost hate using Reddick as the “ugly line of the day” because he has been the most consistent player on the team so far this season, however it was definitely an off day for him and he was 1 strikeout short of wearing the golden sombrero.

A’s Extras:

• Brandon Moss hit his first home run as an Athletic today, it came off of RHP Tanner Scheppers in the seventh.  Moss was 1-3 today with a walk, 2 runs and 1 RBI.
• Yoeneis Cespedes left the game in the first with an apparent hamstring injury.  For now his is listed as day-to-day and is expected to miss tomorrow’s game.  The A’s will take another big hit if Cespedes is placed on the DL again.

For more on the Texas Rangers, visit Big Game Claws.