Oakland, meanwhile, is missing half a lineup and rotation to injury — Brent Rooker is done for the year, Nick Kurtz and Tyler Soderstrom are on the 60-day IL, and third baseman Tommy White was a late scratch risk after back soreness. None of that stopped Lopez and the Oakland bats from having their way with Bradford on getaway day.
The Athletics broke it open with a 3-run third, added 2 more in the fourth and 3 more in the fifth to put the game away well before the late innings. Texas managed single runs in the first and second and nothing after that, while Bradford's bullpen-taxing final line was compounded by an Oakland lineup that had 14 hits on the day against 8 for the Rangers.
Texas had won the first two games of this set and carried a 3-game winning streak into Wednesday — both of those snapped in one afternoon. Oakland's skid, meanwhile, is over, even if it took a lopsided getaway-day win to do it.
For the Rangers, the bigger story is the calendar: a rotation still waiting on Eovaldi and Leiter to get healthy while the Wild Card picture stays crowded down the stretch. For Oakland, it's a reminder that even a last-place, injury-gutted roster can put a crooked number on the board when a start goes sideways.