Rangers at Athletics
THE STORY: The Texas Rangers have reduced their magic number to four and look to take another step toward claiming the American League West title when they visit the Oakland Athletics on Wednesday. Texas is five games ahead of the Los Angeles Angels with just eight games remaining. The Rangers have two games with Oakland and three games with Seattle before their three-game season-ending series against the Angels in Anaheim. Derek Holland won for the ninth time in 10 decisions in Tuesday’s series opener when he allowed just one run and two hits over seven innings. Texas has won seven of its last eight games and is 12-5 against Oakland this season.
TV: 10:05 p.m. ET, ESPN CSCA (Oakland).
PITCHING MATCHUP: Rangers LH C.J. Wilson (16-7, 2.97 ERA) vs. Athletics RH Brandon McCarthy (9-8, 3.35 ERA)
Wilson has allowed just three earned runs in 29 1/3 innings over his last four starts. He lost to Seattle in his last outing when he gave up four runs (one earned) and six hits in 6 1/3 innings. Wilson has struck out 33 batters during the four-game stretch. He is 3-2 with a 3.09 ERA in five career starts against Oakland. Josh Willingham is 7-for-15 with a homer against Wilson.
McCarthy has won eight of his last 11 decisions with two of the three defeats coming in outings against Texas. He gave up four runs (three earned) in six innings while losing to the Rangers on Sept. 9 and was torched for seven runs (five earned) in 3 1/3 innings on August 12. Overall, McCarthy has a 5.06 ERA in four 2011 starts against Texas. He is 1-4 with a 4.58 ERA in eight career appearances (six starts) against the Rangers. Adrian Beltre is batting .348 with two homers in 23 career at-bats against McCarthy, who gave up one run and five hits in seven innings while beating Detroit in his last outing.
ABOUT THE RANGERS (89-65): Beltre hit a three-run homer in Tuesday’s victory, his fourth against Oakland –and eighth overall – since Sept. 10. Beltre has 28 homers, tied for second most in his career, and needs three RBIs for his third 100-RBI season. Michael Young had three hits to raise his season total to 201, marking the sixth 200-hit campaign of his career. He also drove in two runs to set a new high with 104 RBIs. Elvis Andrus extended his hitting streak to 13 games and Mike Napoli reached base four times on two singles and two walks. Josh Hamilton is 7-for-14 over the last three games to up his average to .300.
ABOUT THE ATHLETICS (69-85): Oakland is expected to announce later this week that it is retaining interim manager Bob Melvin. Published reports surfaced Tuesday saying that Melvin will receive a three-year contract. The Athletics are 42-49 since Melvin took over in June for fired Bob Geren. Oakland had just three hits in Tuesday’s loss and the runs came on solo homers by Michael Taylor and Coco Crisp. Taylor’s blast was his first major-league homer. Hideki Matsui had the Athletics’ other hit and is now 2-for-23 on the homestand. Matsui is batting just .133 in 15 career at-bats against Wilson. Scott Sizemore went 0-for-3 and struck out twice, dropping his career average against Texas to .140 with 22 strikeouts in 50 at-bats.
FINAL PITCH: Texas is a season-best 25 games over .500, its best showing since being 31 games over late in the 1999 season. The Rangers finished 95-67 that season before being swept out of the postseason by the New York Yankees.