Jacob deGrom threw seven scoreless innings while Brandon Nimmo and Cody Freeman each had two hits and two RBIs as the Texas Rangers earned an 8-1 victory over the Athletics on Monday in Arlington, Texas.
deGrom (10-9) allowed just one single and no walks. The 38-year-old veteran struck out eight while rebounding from an Aug. 25 start against the Chicago White Sox in which he surrendered eight runs in 3 2/3 innings.
Justin Foscue homered for the Rangers, who won their second straight game and pulled within 1 1/2 games of the Cleveland Guardians for the third and final American League wild card.
Gage Jump (6-9) went 4 1/3 innings and yielded seven runs on six hits for the A’s, who dropped their fourth straight game. He walked three and struck out two.
Lawrence Butler singled in the second inning for the visitors’ only hit against deGrom, but he was erased on a double play.
After Nimmo singled and Jake Burger doubled to begin the bottom of the second, Elias Diaz drove in the game’s first run two batters later with a groundout. Freeman followed with a run-scoring single to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead.
In the third, Corey Seager worked a one-out walk, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on Nimmo’s two-out single, pushing the margin to three.
Foscue led off the fourth with a 417-foot homer, his 10th of the season, extending the lead to 4-0.
After Ezequiel Duran singled in the fifth, Seager and Wyatt Langford walked to load the bases. Nimmo hit a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0 and chase Jump. Chris Roycroft entered in relief and allowed Burger’s RBI single and Evan Carter’s run-scoring groundout to give the Rangers a 7-0 lead.
Against Jose Suarez in the eighth, Logan O’Hoppe doubled with one out and scored on a single to left by Freeman.
In the ninth, the Athletics’ Carlos Cortes singled and Jonah Heim doubled off Ben Peoples before Darell Hernaiz’s sacrifice fly scored the visitors’ only run.
