Canha, Ladendorf make strong debuts as A's crush Rangers

Oakland, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Mark Canha and Tyler Ladendorf were impressive in their MLB debuts, and Scott Kazmir was strong on the mound as the Oakland Athletics crushed the Texas Rangers 10-0 in the third of a four- game set on Wednesday.

Canha finished 3-for-5 with two doubles, four RBI and a run scored, while Ladendorf hit an RBI triple, brought in another with a fielder's choice and scored twice.

Cody Ross, who was signed by Oakland prior to the game, brought in two runs. Kazmir (1-0) earned the win after surrendering just one hit and two walks with a career-high 10 strikeouts over seven scoreless innings.

"Everyone stepped up, swing the bats well, and of course (Kazmir) threw outstanding," Ross said. "It was a nice ice-breaker for me and some of the rookies."

Ross Detweiler (0-1), making his first start with Texas after being acquired from Washington during the offseason, was tagged with the loss after giving up eight runs -- six earned -- on nine hits and two walks over 4 1/3 frames.

"I definitely thought the debut with a new team would go a lot better," Detwiler said.

Oakland will look to earn the series win as the two teams conclude the four- game set on Thursday.

The Athletics started the scoring in the third. Ladendorf hit a line drive to deep left-center field in his first major league at-bat for an RBI triple. After Craig Gentry was hit by a pitch, Ross scored Ladendorf with a liner to left.

Billy Butler walked with two outs to load the bases and Canha cleared them with a double off the top of the right-field wall for a 5-0 lead.

After Josh Phegley scored on a passed ball during the fourth, Oakland tacked on two more runs in the fifth. Semien hit an RBI single and Ladendorf hit a grounder to third with the bases loaded that scored Brett Lawrie for an 8-0 advantage.

In the sixth, Canha cracked his third hit of the day, a fly ball off the wall in left to score Ben Zobrist and Ladendorf raced home on a Ross groundout an inning later to account for the final score.

Game Notes

Canha is the second Athletics player since 1914 with four or more RBI in his debut. Ben Grieve had five on Sept. 3, 1997 ... Oakland is the first team with two players with at least two RBI in their major league debuts since 1920 ... It is also the first time that the A's had two players get their first career hits in the same game since Terrence Long and Adam Piatt on April 24, 2000 against Toronto ... The A's has tripled in each of its first three games for the first time since 1914 ... Lawrie finished with three hits.