Oakland's Stephen Piscotty continued his torrid run production with a game-tying RBI single, and the Athletics used a bases-loaded wild pitch to score the winning run in a 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers on Wednesday in Arlington, Texas.
Piscotty ranks second the major leagues with 26 RBIs in August and has knocked in 10 runs in six games against the Rangers this year. He had the first hit of the game off Texas starter Kolby Allard, in the sixth inning, driving home Marcus Semien, who had walked.
Allard also walked Ramon Laureano before Piscotty's hit, and after Piscotty's hit, Mark Canha drew a walk. Luis Garcia then replaced Allard and uncorked a wild pitch to give the A's a 2-1 lead that they would not relinquish.
Mike Fiers (4-1) hurled six innings for the win, allowing an unearned run on three hits. Fiers struck out seven, including five in a row over the fourth and fifth innings, and walked two.
Joakim Soria, Jake Diekman and Liam Hendriks each pitched a hitless inning in relief for the Athletics, with Hendriks earning his 10th save of the season.
Piscotty also singled and scored a run in the eighth, coming home when Robbie Grossman was hit by a pitch from Rangers reliever Jonathan Hernandez with the bases loaded. Hernandez was lifted in favor of Nick Goody, who struck out the next three batters to keep the Rangers within striking distance
The Rangers scored first when Shin-Soo Choo, seeing his first action in seven games, came home on Oakland catcher Sean Murphy's throwing error during a double steal in the third inning. Choo had been sidelined due to an oblique injury.
That run held up as Allard faced two batters over the minimum through the first five frames. Allard (0-3) wound up allowing two runs on one hit and four walks while striking out five in 5 1/3 innings.
--Field Level Media
Oakland | Texas | |
Mike Fiers | Player | Kolby Allard |
Win | W/L | Loss |
6.0 | IP | 5.1 |
7 | Strikeouts | 5 |
3 | Hits | 1 |
0.00 | ERA | 3.38 |
Oakland | Texas | |
Stephen Piscotty | Player | Shin-Soo Choo |
2 | Hits | 1 |
1 | RBI | 0 |
0 | HR | 0 |
2 | TB | 1 |
.400 | Avg | .333 |