Oakland @ Texas preview
Choctaw Stadium
Last Meeting ( May 5, 2010 ) Texas 1, Oakland 4
Over the last 10 days, the Texas Rangers have won games in which they faced Seattle Mariners hurlers Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez and Kansas City Royals phenom Zack Greinke. But on last Wednesday, the Rangers fell to Oakland Athletics right-hander Trevor Cahill.
After all, baseball is a funny game.
Cahill takes the hill for Oakland and will face Texas for the second consecutive start on Tuesday night at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington. Texas counters with right-hander Colby Lewis in a series that has first place in the AL West hanging in the balance.
Cahill also has one of the most difficult tasks in addition to facing a red-hot Rangers’ team. He has to follow the Dallas Braden's perfect game on Sunday.
Although he likely won’t be as perfect, Cahill should feel good going into the game. He held Texas to just one unearned run over five innings on Wednesday, leading the A’s to a 4-1 victory and picking up his first win of the season.
And Cahill has always pitched well against the Rangers, posting a 4-1 record with a 2.05 ERA in five career starts. In his only start in Arlington last year, Cahill threw seven scoreless innings, allowing one hit with two walks and seven strikeouts.
Offensively, Oakland’s Nos. 2-4 hitters provided all the support Braden needed on Sunday. Daric Barton went 3-for-5 and Ryan Sweeney and Kevin Kouzmanoff both went 2-for-4.
Texas, meanwhile, is coming off its second sweep of the season, taking a four-game set against Kansas City.
The Rangers scored 26 runs over those four games, including a season-high 13 on Thursday night. Texas outfielder David Murphy had arguably the best series among Rangers hitters, going 8-for-17 with four doubles and increasing his batting average from .151 to .229.
Pitching-wise, the Rangers would like Colby Lewis to continue his surprising comeback season after spending two seasons in Japan.
Although Lewis suffered his first loss of the season against Cahill and the A’s on Wednesday, he still went six innings and allowed three runs with three walks and six strikeouts.
Heading into Tuesday's game, Lewis has the most strikeouts for American League pitchers who have started six or less games this year. Lewis has struck out 44 in 38 2/3 innings pitched.
Lewis has also pitched well with runners on base. Opponents are 3-for-32 with runners in scoring position against him.
Outside of the starting pitching, the Rangers bullpen has been solid lately, too. In fact, Rangers relievers have thrown 10 scoreless innings going into this game, retiring an eye-opening 28-of-36 batters in that stretch.
Finally, this is the second of six season series between the two teams. The A’s took two-of-three in the first series last week and, last year, they won the season series 11-8.