Rangers hope to stay sharp against A's
The Texas Rangers continued on their recent roll by taking two of three from the Baltimore Orioles, ending with a one-run victory Thursday night. Texas hopes to keep up this stretch of good baseball when the Oakland A's come to town in Arlington, Texas, on Friday.
Texas held on in the series finale to notch its 15th win in 21 games. The Rangers got a good start from Ariel Jurado and three shutout innings from their bullpen to take the Baltimore series.
The Rangers could lose catcher Isiah Kiner-Falefa to the injured list. He came out late in Thursday's win after spraining the middle finger on his right hand while diving back to first on a pickoff play a few innings earlier. The catcher went 1-for-3 despite leaving early.
"I don't like the way it looks, to be honest with you," Texas manager Chris Woodward to MLB.com after the game. "If it's a situation where he is going to be down, I don't think we have any choice, not with the games we have coming up."
Woodward told the site that the team will see how Kiner-Falefa feels on Friday. If he's not able to go, then the Rangers probably will put him on the injured list.
Texas will have a doubleheader on Saturday with Oakland, meaning the team will have four games in three days and is likely going to need to make a move at catcher.
The A's have had their own injury issues this season, and another one popped up Thursday before they finished their series in Anaheim with a 7-4 victory over the Angels.
Pitcher Jharel Cotton, who has been working his way back from Tommy John surgery, had surgery in Dallas for a torn tendon in his right hamstring, according to MLB.com. He still could pitch at some point later this season, head athletic trainer Nick Paparesta said.
"We're confident this will be able to address Jharel's problem and get him back at a fairly rapid pace for us," Paparesta told MLB.com. "When that might be will be at some point this season. We anticipate Jharel to pitch again."
The A's got plenty of help on offense in Thursday's win to end their series on a good note.
Stephen Piscotty homered and drove in two runs, and Ramon Laureano also had two RBI. Mike Fiers threw six strong innings in the win.
The A's also made a few pitching moves Thursday to try and help their bullpen.
MLB.com said Oakland sent down Daniel Mengden to Triple-A Las Vegas and brought up fellow reliever Ryan Dull. Manager Bob Melvin also said that the A's are going to call up Paul Blackburn from Las Vegas to start one of the games in Saturday's doubleheader.
Brett Anderson (6-4, 3.95) is going to start for Oakland versus Lance Lynn (7-4, 4.50) on Friday. Anderson has battled some injuries recently and has a 3-4 record with a 4.82 ERA in 11 starts against the Rangers.
Lynn is 5-2 in his last seven starts and has struck out at least nine batters three times. He has pitched just once versus Oakland and is 0-1 with a 21.60 ERA.
--Field Level Media
