A’s Enjoy Win vs the Perez Dispenser

In the top of the first after getting up 0-2 on the first batter, LHP Martin Perez and the Texas Rangers began to fall apart with sloppy play and imprecise pitching which ended up allowing the A’s to cruise to a 9-3 win and cut the teams AL West lead to 3 games.

While Perez never had his best pitches, the A’s were able to hit the ball were the defense wasn’t and the lack of focus on the teams fielding allowed the Athletics to build up a 5-0 l

Washington pulls Perez after 2/3 inning.
(Dallas Morning News)

ead in the first.  The poor fielding began with Nelson Cruz taking a poor angle on the first hit and then later on the inning Hamilton took a poor angle on another hit, and then followed that up with taking his eye of a easy grounder and allowed Donaldson to turn a single into reaching 3rd.  By then the A’s were up 4-0 and Perez was pulled after 2/3 of an inning to be replaced by Roy Oswalt who shut down the offense for 1.1 innings.

The Rangers offense began to fight back by earning 3 runs in the first 2 innings but then fell silent as the A’s continued to build their lead in the third when pitcher Wilmer Fonts begins the inning by walking two and then having Tanner Scheppers come in and allow 2 to score before he gets out of the inning.

The Rangers have 1 more game against the A’s and should be considered a must win to rebuild their AL West lead to 4 games or else their series in Oakland will not only have Division winning implications but also could determine if the Rangers would have to play in the Wild Card game.

Oakland Athletics (88-67) 9, Texas Rangers (91-64) 3
September 26, 2012

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E Oakland 5 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 9 16 1 Texas 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 5 1