Zack Gelof’s two-run homer in the seventh inning lifted the Athletics to a 5-2 victory over the Texas Rangers on Sunday in West Sacramento, Calif.
Gelof, who returned Monday after a lacerated right knee put him on the injured list for a month, highlighted a 2-for-5 game with a two-run shot off Jakob Junis (1-2) to break a 2-2 tie.
The 403-foot opposite-field shot to right field with one out was the utilityman’s 14th of the season and third in the past week. It also allowed the A’s to take the rubber match of a three-game series against a Rangers team trying to hold on to the final American League wild-card spot.
Lawrence Butler went 2-for-4 and hit a two-run shot for the Athletics, while Tommy White provided an insurance run in the eighth inning, leading off with his first big-league homer.
Jake Burger hit a solo homer in the second and drove in both Texas runs as he finished 3-for-4.
The 13 hits by the Athletics were their most since they had 15 against the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 1. Henry Bolte went 3-for-5 and scored on Gelof’s homer.
Luis Medina (4-3) struck out two in an inning of relief after starter Jacob Lopez allowed two runs on five hits and two walks over six innings. Lopez also fanned six. Hogan Harris recorded two strikeouts in a perfect ninth for his 12th save of the season.
Rangers starter Cody Bradford threw 81 pitches, his highest total since returning less than two weeks ago from elbow surgery that had kept him sidelined for more than a season and a half. However, he completed just four innings as the Athletics got to him for two runs, eight hits and a walk.
Bradford gave up Butler’s homer in the second, with Burger tying the game a half-inning later with a fielder’s choice RBI. However, the Rangers managed just seven hits off A’s pitchers as they fell for the sixth time in their last eight games.
The series win was the Athletics’ first in West Sacramento since taking two of three against the Kansas City Royals at the end of April.
