Athletics tie Rangers for AL West lead
- Athletics beat Rangers 3-1 to force tie atop AL West
- Final game of the season will determine division champ
- Travis Blackley allowed one run over six innings for the win
OAKLAND — At one point recently the Oakland Athletics had merely a mathematical chance of winning the American League West. Now their odds are no worse than 50-50.
The A's astonishing ride took one more dramatic turn Tuesday when, a night after securing a wild-card spot, they beat the Texas Rangers 3-1 to tie them for the division lead at 93-68 — their first time occupying first place since the second game of the season.
By winning their fifth consecutive game and seventh in the past eight, the A's wiped out what had been a five-game deficit eight days before, and they're feeling pretty good about their chances of finishing the job.
"Momentum is huge. Last night just carried onto today, I really believe that," said closer Grant Balfour, who has struck out five of six batters faced in saving the past two victories. "And I feel it's going to carry onto tomorrow."
The two-time defending AL champion Rangers, losers of four of their last five, will now need a victory this afternoon to avoid blowing a division title that seemed rightfully theirs for weeks. They had held first place since April 9.
A loss today — veteran Ryan Dempster will oppose A's rookie A.J. Griffin — would force the Rangers into a one-game playoff against either the Baltimore Orioles or New York Yankees.
"Obviously we didn't want to be in this position," Rangers outfielder David Murphy said, "but it lasted this long, we might as well make some drama out of it and have some fun tomorrow."
Left-hander Travis Blackley, who had allowed a total of eight earned runs in his last two starts covering three innings, outdueled 18-game winner Matt Harrison as Oakland approached a rare historical feat.
The A's, who trailed Texas by 13 games on June 30, could become just the fifth team in major league history to win a division or pennant after falling behind by that many games. Two of those comebacks, by the 1951 New York Giants and the 1978 New York Yankees, have become part of baseball lore.
The once-nondescript A's, better known in their mediocre recent years for their general manager, Billy Beane, being portrayed on the Moneyball movie by Brad Pitt, are on the verge of joining that company.
"We're playing with house money," said Jonny Gomes, predicting the A's will continue to play with a carefree attitude. "You sit down at the blackjack table and someone gives you twenty grand, you can play a little rambunctious."
Oakland players had celebrated with gusto after clinching the wild card Monday night, but several said they would be focused and ready come game time Tuesday.
Nobody was more on his game than Blackley, who puzzled the Rangers with fastballs in the low 90-mph range and tantalizing curves in pitching six innings of three-hit ball. Josh Hamilton's two-out double in the third drove in Texas' only run.
"Big-time performance," A's manager Bob Melvin said. "I think the most difficult thing for him was probably trying to put away the last couple of outings. The stuff's no different. It's just what's going on between the ears."
Gomes' solo homer stretched Oakland's lead to 3-1 in the sixth — the A's first two runs came in on Derek Norris' RBI single and a fielding error by right fielder Nelson Cruz in the fifth — and the club's nearly impenetrable bullpen took over from there.
Much like they did on Monday, the late-game relief trio of Sean Doolittle, Ryan Cook and Balfour slammed the door on the majors' most prolific offense.
"You get six (innings from the starter), I feel like we have Doolittle, Cookie and myself, and we feel confident," Balfour said. "That's the way we wrote it up and I honestly feel that's the way we can get it done."