Athletics long to continue the series against the Rangers (July 24, 2018)

The Oakland Athletics have the most prolific major league baseball power team on the road this season and have sagged early in the morning and often in their 15-3 win against the Rangers of Texas on Monday at the opening of a four-game series Life Park in Arlington, Texas

The A snatched four home runs, highlighted by Jonathan Lucroy's Grand Slam in the second round in front of Cole Hamels, Texas, to bring their total to 89. Oakland had ambaded 18 responses on Monday and 10 of them were for additional bases.

The series continues Tuesday. Oakland will activate right-hander Frankie Montas (5-2, 3.35 ERA) in the lineup for the game while the Rangers will send left-handed Mike Minor (6-6, 4.89) to the hill.

Monday's release obscured Hamels' prospects to be traded before the July 31 deadline. It was the fifth consecutive start in which he has awarded at least four points, and in three of them, he has awarded seven. In four starts in July, Hamels has pbaded more than five innings once and has a 10.50 MMP

"Cole has put competitive starts in place," Texas manager Jeff Banister told the Dallas Morning News. "There have been some challenges inside some of these starts, and it took him a bit of time to get back to the pace he is used to."

"From the start of the season to the end of the season. to now, he is in a better place. There have been quality flashes in a number of outings, but not the usual regularity that Cole is used to.

Montas was in A's clubhouse before Monday's game, holding his opponents to three or fewer points in six of his eight starts, making at least five innings in seven games. them and whitened Houston six times on his last big start on July 9, getting three hits with two goals.

"It's a little different from what we've had recently with guys coming down , and now we have tougher decisions to make about who will be one of the five, "said Bob Melvin, manager of A at MLB.com" Frankie did exactly what we asked him during the last outings . "

Montas averaged 2.8 outings in nine innings, after averaging 5.6 on the field last year, and yielded two home runs in 48 innings and one third, against 10 innings in 32 innings in 2017.

"That's the confidence," said Melvin about from the improvement of Montas. "The trick has always been the same for him – it's laying on the plate, it's trusting your mechanics and being confident on the mound – you can just see the level of talent coming out It's because of the level of confidence that he has on the mound now. "He played really well, and he should be confident."

Miner allowed six points (five earned) in a short start July 15 in Baltimore. His extra rest is more a function or caution of the Rangers than his recent performance, as he is already approaching 100 innings after spending the 2017 year in the Royals' paddock.

This will be the 19th start of the season for Minor. He is 2-2 with a 3.60 ERA in his last seven starts.

Minor 1-1 with a 3.72 ERA in four games (one start) in his career against the A, including three outings with Kansas City in 2017 His only start against Oakland came on August 17, 2014 when he was with Atlanta. No current A has played in this game.