 beat the A's on April 17 but didn't last long against his former club this time. The right-hander allowed three runs on five hits, struck out three and walked three before manager Jeff Banister pulled him after Griffin gave up a one-out double to Bruce Maxwell in the fourth.The Rangers didn't offer much offensive support.Choo's home run marked the first time someone other than Adrian Beltre had an RBI against the A's in the series. Elvis Andrus added a run-scoring single in the eighth but Mike Napoli lined into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded.Cotton (7-10) matched his career high of nine strikeouts, allowed one unearned run and pitched four-hit ball over six innings to win consecutive starts for the second time this season.Blake Treinen retired five batters for his seventh save.Matt Olson, the A's rookie first baseman who spent most of the year in the minors, hit his ninth home run in 35 games off Griffin in the second. Two pitches later, Matt Chapman connected for his 10th.TRAINER'S ROOMRangers: LHP Jake Diekman will pitch for Triple-A Round Rock on Monday while continuing a comeback from three abdominal operations.Athletics: INF Jed Lowrie exited with a bruised left shin in the sixth. . RHP Paul Blackburn is scheduled for an MRI on his right hand. Blackburn was hit by a line drive off the bat of Baltimore's Trey Mancini on Tuesday.UP NEXTRangers: LHP Martin Perez (9-10, 5.00 ERA) is scheduled to start the series opener against the Astros following an off day Monday. Perez has won four straight after dropping three consecutive games.Athletics: RHP Daniel Gossett (3-6, 5.49) continues his up-and-down season Monday at the Los Angeles Angels.---More baseball coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball)
Griffin right at home as Rangers visit Athletics 1h ago• 3 min read OAKLAND, Calif. -- Texas Rangers right-hander A. J. Griffin felt right at home April 17 when he made his first career start at the Oakland Coliseum for a visiting team.Griffin blanked the Oakland Athletics, who drafted him in the 13th round in 2010, on one hit over six innings in a 7-0 victory, striking out a season-high eight and walking one.Griffin will make his fourth start overall against the A's -- all coming this season -- and second at the Coliseum on Sunday afternoon in the finale of a three-game series.Griffin is 11-4 with a 3.31 ERA in 25 career starts at the Coliseum, and the wild-card playoff contending Rangers are in dire need of a strong start from the former Athletic after dropping the first two games in the series to the American League West's last-place team."It's a game," Rangers third baseman Adrian Beltre said. "It's a baseball game. It doesn't matter who you're playing. They have 25 guys just like us. They put nine guys on the field just like us. That's baseball. Major league talent, so it's not like it's going to be easy to beat anybody."Yes, we expected to beat them, but they came out and played better than we did. That's baseball, and we got to find a way to come back tomorrow and forget about this one." The A's beat the Rangers 3-1 on Friday night when Khris Davis hit two solo home runs. Then on Saturday, they beat the Rangers 8-3 as rookie Chad Pinder hit a pair of solo shots off left-hander Cole Hamels.Texas (64-65) remained two games behind Minnesota (66-63) for the second wild-card spot in the American League."There's too many teams in front of us," Beltre said. "We have to make sure we win ballgames so we can gain some ground. We can't afford to be losing like this. Come back tomorrow and try to win the game." Griffin went 7-1 with a 3.06 ERA in 15 starts as a rookie in 2012 with the A's. The next season he was 14-10 with a 3.83 ERA in 32 starts. Griffin missed the entire 2014 season, which ended with Tommy John surgery, and made only four minor league starts in 2015 while recovering.The A's released Griffin on Nov. 30, 2015, and the Rangers signed him as a minor league free agent Jan. 12, 2016.Griffin went 7-4 with a 5.07 ERA in 23 starts last season with the Rangers. This year he's 6-4 with a 5.10 ERA in 12 starts. He missed 58 games with a left intercostal strain, but since being reinstated from the disabled list Aug. 12, he's 2-2 with a 3.86 ERA in four starts."I feel good," Griffin said. "Going out there, I feel like for the most part I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. It's like a pitch here, a pitch there. Just trying to minimize damage and keep the team in the game and just execute pitches. Since I've come back I think I've been doing that for the most part." A's right-hander Jharel Cotton (6-10, 5.63 ERA) will make his sixth start since being reinstated July 30 after missing 21 games with a blister on his right thumb. Cotton went 1-2 with a 6.92 ERA in his past five starts, but is coming off his first victory since June 23.Cotton allowed two runs on four hits over 6 2/3 innings in a 3-2 victory at Houston on Aug. 20."He's been struggling lately, obviously, and I think he went back to the old Jharel Cotton," A's catcher Bruce Maxwell said. "He located the fastball a lot better. His changeup was more effective because it comes off of his fastball. So I think he was trying to play with guys a little too much in his previous couple of starts instead of just really focusing on what got him here, which was the power of his fastball."It's got good life, he spots it really well. With the strength of the fastball, that's when his changeup comes into play, his cutter comes into play. I think he was trying to lead with everything else instead of leading with the fastball." Despite his struggles, Cotton has remained confident and mentally strong."All you can do is fight," Cotton said. "You can't fold because that's how you show your weakness. You just got to go out there and perform no matter what, good or bad." Cotton is 1-1 with a 4.38 ERA in two career starts against Texas.Griffin is 1-0 with a 5.02 ERA in three starts against Oakland.
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