Chris Bassitt ran his unbeaten streak to 15 straight starts with seven innings of shutout ball and Frank Schwindel survived a manager’s challenge for his first career home run Wednesday night as the Oakland Athletics edged the visiting Texas Rangers 3-1.
Bassitt (9-2), who hasn’t lost since April 6, limited the Rangers to a double and two singles in his seven innings en route to his ninth straight win after an 0-2 start. In beating Texas for the second time in seven days, the right-hander walked one and struck out seven.
Bassitt benefited from pitching with a lead for most of the game, the result of a three-run second against Rangers starter Kolby Allard (2-4).
A Matt Chapman walk and Chad Pinder infield hit set the stage for the uprising.
After Sean Murphy opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly, Schwindel launched a shot into the second deck down the left-field line, a ball ruled to have been barely fair by third-base umpire Fieldin Culbreth.
Rangers manager Chris Woodward elected to challenge the call, which withstood the review and gave Schwindel a homer in his first at-bat with the A’s.
Promoted from Triple-A on his 29th birthday Tuesday, Schwindel had been 1-for-15 with a single in his only previous major-league experience with Kansas City in 2019. He had 16 homers in 44 games at Las Vegas this season before his promotion.
Allard, who also was on the losing end of the decision last Thursday when he dueled Bassitt in Texas, held the A’s to just the three runs on four hits in six innings. He walked one and struck out five.
Seeking a fifth straight win after taking the series opener 5-4 on Tuesday night, the Rangers’ biggest threat against Bassitt came in the sixth.
A one-out single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa and walk to Brock Holt gave Texas two shots with the tying run at the plate. But Bassitt got Adolis Garcia to ground into a force play and Joey Gallo, who had homered twice on Tuesday, to ground out to preserve the three-run cushion.
Gallo, who entered the game with five homers in his previous three games, added another off A’s closer Lou Trivino with one out in the ninth. The solo shot was his 19th of the season.
Consecutive infield singles by Nate Lowe and Eli White put the potential tying run on the bases with still just one out before Trivino struck out Jonah Heim and got Nick Solak to fly out to lock down his 13th save.
Shortstop Elvis Andrus had two singles for the A’s while the man who has replaced him in Texas, Kiner-Falefa, and White collected a pair of hits apiece for the Rangers, who out-hit Oakland 7-5.
–Field Level Media