None of that mattered against this particular opponent Tuesday. Texas built a lead in pieces — a run in the 1st, another in the 3rd — before back-to-back three-run innings in the 5th and 6th put the game away. The Athletics didn't go quietly, scratching across single runs in the 7th and 8th and adding a two-run 9th, but the hole was already too deep.
Oakland is now stuck in its worst kind of rut — the last-place kind. Five straight losses, three to Baltimore before this set, and two more to open the series with Texas, have the Athletics staring at a 53-86 record with nothing but pride left to play for.
The Rangers, on the other hand, are riding a 3-game winning streak into the second half of this series and clawing at a wild-card spot that's still very much in reach. Sweeping the A's would be exactly the kind of series against a bad team that a fringe contender needs to bank in September.
The injury reports tell two very different stories. Texas is dealing with attrition on the pitching staff at the worst possible time, while Oakland's list reads like a full teardown — former building blocks like Kurtz, Soderstrom, Jacob Wilson and Luis Severino all shelved, some for good this year. One team is trying to survive a stretch run; the other is just trying to survive the season.
Gore's final line and Basso's early exit will get plenty of attention, but the story of this one was the two big innings in the middle that Texas turned into a laugher before Oakland's ninth-inning push made it look respectable again on paper.