Dallas Braden pitched one-hit ball over eight innings and Oakland roughed up Texas ace Cliff Lee as the host Athletics blanked the Rangers 5-0 on Thursday night.
At one point, Braden (10-13) retired 19 consecutive hitters. The left-hander struck out seven and walked two.
It was Braden’s second strong outing against Texas in less than a month. He tossed a four-hit shutout against the Rangers on August 28.
Brad Ziegler struck out two in the ninth while finishing the shutout.
Lee (12-9) gave up four runs and six hits before being lifted after five innings.
Jack Cust had a run-scoring single in the fourth for the first Oakland run and Chris Carter hit a sacrifice fly later in the inning.
The following inning, Steve Tolleson doubled in a run and scored later in the frame when Daric Barton hit into a double play.
Oakland added a sixth-inning run on Matt Carson’s booming double to center field.
Nelson Cruz’s first-inning single was Texas’ only hit.
Texas | Oakland | |
Cliff Lee | Player | Dallas Braden |
Loss | W/L | Win |
5.0 | IP | 8.0 |
3 | Strikeouts | 7 |
6 | Hits | 1 |
7.20 | ERA | 0.00 |
Texas | Oakland | |
Nelson Cruz | Player | Steven Tolleson |
1 | Hits | 2 |
0 | RBI | 1 |
0 | HR | 0 |
1 | TB | 4 |
.250 | Avg | .667 |