J.T. Ginn recorded his first major-league win, Mason Miller threw the Oakland Athletics’ final pitch in their Oakland Coliseum history, and the A’s completed their home schedule with a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers on Thursday afternoon.
On a celebrity-filled day in which Rickey Henderson and Dave Stewart threw out ceremonial first pitches and Barry Zito sang the National Anthem, A’s fans marked the historic event by recording the largest attendance – 46,889 – in major-league history for a team playing its final game in its home city. The Montreal Expos held the previous mark of 31,395 in 2004.
The baseball gods shined on the hometown heroes, with Oakland’s three runs coming on an infield out, a sacrifice fly and a flyball lost in the sun.
The first two runs came in the third inning after the A’s loaded the bases against Rangers starter Kumar Rocker (0-2) on an infield single by Jacob Wilson and a pair of station-to-station hits by Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker.
JJ Bleday brought home the first run with a fielder’s choice grounder to second, after which Shea Langeliers’ fly to deep left allowed Butler to jog home.
The A’s made it 3-0 in the fifth when Wilson, who had singled and advanced to second on an error by left fielder Wyatt Langford, was able to score when Langford lost Bleday’s routine two-out flyball in the sun. The play was ruled a hit, giving Bleday a second RBI.
Rocker, who also was seeking his first big-league win, was pulled at that point, charged with three runs on seven hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out two without issuing a walk.
The Rangers (75-84) ended Ginn’s shutout bid and knocked him from the game in the sixth on a two-out RBI single by Adolis Garcia. Nathaniel Lowe followed with an RBI infield out against A’s reliever T.J. McFarland, closing the gap to 3-2.
Ginn (1-1), who was making just his sixth big-league start, was charged with both runs. He allowed five hits and two walks in his 5 1/3 innings, striking out two.
The Oakland bullpen quieted the Rangers and excited the crowd from there, with Tyler Ferguson and Michel Otanez combining to retire five of the six men they faced before Miller took over with two outs in the eighth.
The Oakland closer stranded the potential tying run at second by getting Garcia on a comebacker to end the eighth, before throwing a 1-2-3 ninth for his 28th save, after which he and his teammates stayed on the field to salute the fans as manager Mark Kotsay addressed the crowd.
The win gave the A’s (69-90) an all-time 2,492-2,000-1 home record in Oakland. The game did not feature a home run, meaning the Rangers’ Garcia will go down as having hit the last one in the A’s Oakland history, a third-inning blast on Wednesday night.
Wilson and Rooker had two hits apiece for the A’s, whose previous high in home attendance was 37,551 for the rival San Francisco Giants in August.
Josh Smith’s third-inning double was the only extra-base hit for the Rangers, who were out-hit 9-5.
