Wyatt Langford ignited a three-run first inning with a home run, Cody Bradford combined with three relievers on a nine-hitter and the Texas Rangers turned out the lights on 57 years of night baseball at the Oakland Coliseum with a 5-1 victory over the host Athletics on Wednesday night.
The Rangers needed just six pitches to take the lead for good in the final night game in the A’s Oakland history. The clubs will play an afternoon game on Thursday to formally lower the curtain on the A’s home schedule.
The A’s (68-90) finish with three games at Seattle.
The Rangers (75-83) jumped on Oakland starter Brady Basso (1-1) when former A’s star Marcus Semien hit the third pitch of the game for a single and Langford followed three pitches later with his 14th home run.
The visitors didn’t stop there as Jonah Heim walked, Adolis Garcia singled and Nathaniel Lowe made it 3-0 with an RBI single before Basso got his first out.
The A’s got one back when Daz Cameron tripled and scored on Darell Hernaiz’s single in the second, before Garcia launched a two-run homer in the third, his 24th of the year, opening a four-run cushion.
Basso was pulled after three innings, charged with all five Rangers runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out three.
Oakland had its chances against Bradford, accumulating six hits and three walks in 3 2/3 innings, but stranded two in the first, one in the second, two in the third and three more in the fourth. Matt Festa (6-1) had to be summoned to escape the fourth-inning jam, and he was rewarded with the win after also throwing scoreless fifth and sixth innings.
Former Athletic Andrew Chafin and Jose Leclerc tag-teamed for three game-closing zeroes, completing a relief effort that held the A’s scoreless on just three hits over 5 1/3 innings. There was no scoring in the game’s final six innings.
Langford and Garcia finished with two hits each and Heim scored twice for the Rangers, the defending World Series champions who won’t be participating in the postseason this year.
Brent Rooker had a double and a single, and Lawrence Butler added a pair of singles for the A’s, who out-hit the visitors 9-8 and stranded 13 baserunners.
