Athletics at Rangers
The Oakland Athletics are alone atop the American League wild-card standings entering the first of three games at the Texas Rangers on Friday. After enduring a 15-0 loss to begin a four-game set at Houston, the Athletics bounced back to win the next three against the Astros, including Thursday's 3-2 nail-biter.
Matt Olson's two-run homer in the third inning held up as Oakland won for the eighth time in its last 10 games, moved a season-high 27 games over .500 (87-60) and gained a half-game advantage over the Tampa Bay Rays for the first wild card. Six of the Athletics' final 15 games will come against the Rangers, who helped Oakland's cause by taking two of three from the Rays. Rougned Odor homered in Thursday's 6-4 win - his fifth blast in the last eight games - as Texas moved to .500 (74-74) for the first time since Aug. 14 with its sixth victory in the last seven games. Chris Bassitt gets the nod in the opener for Oakland while the Rangers turn to rookie southpaw Brock Burke.
TV: 8:05 p.m. ET, NBCS Bay Area (Oakland), FS Southwest (Texas)
PITCHING MATCHUP: Athletics RH Chris Bassitt (10-5, 3.64 ERA) vs. Rangers LH Brock Burke (0-1, 3.52)
Bassitt has won three straight decisions and struck out a career-high 11 over six solid innings in a 10-2 victory against Detroit on Saturday. That came a little over a week after he recorded one strikeout and gave up five runs (three earned) in 4 2/3 frames at Kansas City. The 30-year-old opened his season with five scoreless innings against the Rangers at home April 22 but gave up three runs in 5 2/3 frames at Texas on June 8.
Burke lasted exactly six innings in each of his first three career starts before getting knocked out after just five at Baltimore last Friday. The 23-year-old allowed six runs against the Orioles after yielding only three total runs over those first three outings. He has 12 strikeouts with eight walks in 23 innings in the majors.
WALK-OFFS
1. Rangers rookie INF/DH Nick Solak is 10-for-19 with two home runs and eight RBIs during a five-game hitting streak.
2. Athletics SS Marcus Semien has scored two runs in each of his last three games, during which he is 8-for-14.
3. Oakland 3B Matt Chapman went 0-for-8 with seven strikeouts over the last two games in the Houston series.