By ,
Published February 05, 2015
Oakland, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Sonny Gray threw seven strong innings and Brandon Moss hit a go-ahead RBI double in the fifth inning Wednesday as the Oakland Athletics beat the Texas Rangers 4-2 in the rubber match of a three- game series.
Gray (7-3) snapped a two-start losing streak after giving up two runs on six hits and two walks while striking out seven.
Moss' RBI double in the fifth scored Yoenis Cespedes, who was one of four players with two hits for the A's in their fourth win in five games.
Oakland (44-28) is a season-high 16 games over .500 and owns the best record in the majors.
Nick Tepesch (2-3) remained winless in his last four starts, giving up all four Oakland runs on nine hits and two walks in five innings.
Shin-Soo Choo had two hits, including a two-run single for the Rangers, who have dropped three of their last four.
Cespedes, who singled, scored from first base on Moss' hit to the right-field corner, beating the throw home with a head-first slide. Moss later came home on Stephen Vogt's sacrifice fly to make it 4-2.
"We didn't score a ton of runs today, but we got big hits when we needed to," Athletics manager Bob Melvin said.
Luke Gregerson pitched a perfect eighth inning for the A's after relieving Gray and Sean Doolittle struck out the last two batters in a 1-2-3 ninth to earn his ninth save of the season.
Earlier, John Jaso followed Craig Gentry's leadoff single in the third inning with an RBI double to the wall in left-center field and later scored one Josh Donaldson's two-out single to give the A's a 2-0 lead.
Walks to Rougned Odor and Leonys Martin got Gray in trouble in the top of the fifth. He gave up a single to Elvis Andrus to load the bases and Choo followed with a single to left field to knock in two runs and tie the score.
Game Notes
Tepesch is 0-3 in his last four starts ... Cespedes made a leaping catch at the warning track in left field on Adrian Beltre's line drive in the fourth inning with a runner at first base ... The A's will finish a 10-game homestand against Boston starting Thursday. They are 4-2 in the first six games of the residency ... The Rangers are 3-3 on a nine-game road trip that wraps up in Anaheim beginning Friday.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/as-beat-rangers-to-win-series