Rangers at Athletics
The Texas Rangers will turn to 44-year-old right-hander Bartolo Colon when they open a four-game road series against the Oakland Athletics on Monday after both teams lost three of four contests to start the season. Colon allowed six earned runs in 18 innings during spring training to earn a spot in the rotation for the Rangers, who were outscored 17-5 to lose the last two against Houston over the weekend.
“I expect that he’s going to go out and throw strikes and have a veteran outing,” Texas manager Jeff Banister told reporters of Colon, who is starting his 21st season in the major leagues after pitching for Atlanta and Minnesota in 2017. Elvis Andrus has led the offense for the Rangers in the early going, recording seven hits in 13 at-bats with a homer and Oakland will try to cool the shortstop off with right-hander Andrew Triggs taking the mound. The Athletics won the season opener against the Los Angeles Angels before losing the last three, including Sunday’s matchup 7-4 after taking an early one-run lead. Oakland third baseman Matt Chapman belted a three-run homer in the loss Sunday and shares the team lead in RBIs (four) with outfielder Khris Davis (85 homers in 2016-17) in the first four contests.
TV: 10:05 p.m. ET, FS Southwest (Texas), NBCS California (Oakland)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Rangers RH Bartolo Colon (2017: 7-14, 6.48 ERA) vs. Athletics RH Andrew Triggs (2017: 5-6, 4.27)
The ageless Colon will pitch for his 11th major league team after being signed by the Rangers and hopes to rebound after a rough season while adding to his 240 career wins and 2,454 strikeouts. The Dominican Republic native had totaled at least 14 victories in four straight seasons before struggling last year, but still logged 143 innings. Jonathan Lucroy is 4-for-9 lifetime against Colon, who is 9-6 with 3.41 ERA in 21 career appearances (20 starts) against the Athletics.
Triggs went 4-1 with a 1.84 ERA in April last season, but struggled after that while allowing 68 hits in 65 1/3 innings in 12 starts overall before undergoing season-ending hip surgery in July. The 29-year-old USC product was much better against left-handed hitters (.215) than he was against right-handers (.302) in 2017 and finished 3-4 with a 5.15 ERA at home. Andrus is 2-for-5 with an RBI against Triggs, who allowed two unearned runs in six innings to beat the Rangers last season.
WALK-OFFS
1. The Athletics won 11 of 19 meetings last season with Davis belting seven homers and recording 13 RBIs in the series.
2. Texas 2B Rougned Odor is off to a rough start with one hit in 12 at-bats with four strikeouts.
3. Oakland 1B Matt Olson, who hit 24 homers in his first full season last year, is 2-for-14 with eight strikeouts in the first four games.