Texas Rangers Burned By Grand Slam in 8-7 Loss

Oakland’s Scott Sizemore belted a pinch-hit grand slam in the sixth inning Saturday night, which helped the A’s end a nine-game skid against Texas with an 8-7 win.

With the score knotted up at 3, Rangers starting pitcher Alexi Ogando hit Josh Willingham with a pitch to lead off the sixth. David DeJesus followed that with a single and Texas manager Ron Washington went to his bullpen calling on left-hander Mike Gonzalez.

Ryan Sweeney attempted to bunt, but Gonzalez made a nice play to get a force at third. Brandon Allen was set down on a foul popup, and Gonzalez then walked Kurt Suzuki to load the bases.

Washington once again went to the bullpen calling on Yoshinori Tateyama. A’s manager Bob Melvin countered with Sizemore in place of Eric Sogard, who ripped Tateyama’s 1-0 fastball into the left field seats for his first career grand slam and a 7-3 lead.

Cliff Pennington added an RBI double of Tateyama later in the sixth to give the A’s a five-run cushion.

The Rangers Adrian Beltre hit his 299^th career home run, with a two-run shot off A’s starter Trevor Cahill in the sixth that pulled Texas closer at 8-5. Michael Young drove in the final two runs of the game with a single in the seventh off Fautino De Los Santos to make it 8-7. Beltre ended the game with 3 hits overall while extending his hitting streak to 15 games.

Ogando gave up five runs –three earned—and six hits in five-plus innings in his first start for the Rangers since Aug. 31. His last scheduled outing had been skipped to allow him additional rest. He’s dropped five of his last seven decisions.

The 8-7 loss cut the AL-West leading Rangers lead down to just a game and a half over the Los Angeles Angels.