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Swisher's homer gives A's wild win over Rangers

Sep 15, 2007 - 6:55 AM By Tom Kent PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

OAKLAND, California (Ticker) -- The Oakland Athletics continue to fight for respectability.

The Athletics erupted for seven runs in the fifth inning and Nick Swisher belted the go-ahead home run a frame later as Oakland overcame a six-run deficit and posted a wild 11-9 victory over the Texas Rangers on Friday.

Oakland entered with a 72-76 record, 15 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League West Division, and is in jeopardy of posting its first losing season since 1998. Currently, only the New York Yankees (15) and Boston Red Sox (10) have posted more consecutive winning seasons than the Athletics.

"Regardless of where we are in the standings, we're going to keep fighting," Swisher said. "The emotion is still there, which is nice to see."

With the score tied at 9-9 and one out in the sixth, Swisher deposited a 1-2 offering from Rangers reliever John Rheinecker (2-2) over the left field wall for a solo shot. It was Swisher's 21st homer of the season and second in as many games.

"This team is going to keep banging," Swisher said. "We have a bunch of young guys in there and it's been fun to watch. We came back from a huge deficit, which shows a lot of heart."

Kurt Suzuki plated an insurance run later in the inning with a single.

Andrew Brown (3-2) picked up the win after tossing 1 1/3 scoreless innings. Alan Embree allowed a hit in the eighth before Huston Street worked a perfect ninth for his 16th save.

Trailing, 6-2, in the fifth, Oakland staged its comeback when Shannon Stewart and Daric Barton opened the frame with singles off Texas starter Kason Gabbard. After Gabbard issued three straight walks to force in a pair of runs, Jack Cust and Suzuki delivered RBI singles against reliever Mike Wood to forge a 6-6 tie.

"(Gabbard) got two strikes on Stewart and couldn't put him away," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "It just snowballed from there."

Two more runs scored on a throwing error by Rangers catcher Gerald Laird, and Donnie Murphy successfully executed a squeeze play to plate Jack Hannahan for a 9-6 lead.

"It wasn't the prettiest win," Oakland manager Bob Geren said. "After the way we started off so poorly, it was great, though."

Texas battled back, however, as Sammy Sosa - who opened the scoring with a two-run single in the third - belted a three-run homer in the sixth to knot the game at 9-9.

"I've always been a Sosa backer," Washington said. "I like having him in there because he always does something. He's an RBI machine."

Oakland starter Dan Meyer, who was acquired from Atlanta as part of the deal involving Tim Hudson prior to the 2005 season, lasted just 2 2/3 innings.

The 26-year-old lefthander - who has spent time on the minor league disabled list in each of his three seasons in the Athletics organization - yielded six runs, five hits and three walks with four strikeouts, throwing 73 pitches.

"I wasn't too nervous out there," Meyer said. "I felt pretty good. My velocity was good and my off-speed was good at times. I felt great and thought I located pretty well. Everything came together for them in that one inning, though. I really don't have any explanation for it."

Gabbard, who was making his eighth start for Texas since being acquired from the Boston Red Sox in the trade for Eric Gagne, was tagged for seven runs and five hits in four innings while walking seven and striking out four.

"Obviously, you want to keep your team in the game," Gabbard said. "It was just one of those things where I was overly aggressive. I was trying to make too good of pitches."

Barton, who made his major league debut on Monday against the Seattle Mariners, belted his first career home run in the third - a two-run shot to right field - to cut Oakland's deficit to 6-2.

"I was just looking for a ball up in the zone," Barton said. "They've been challenging me since I've been here, and I got one up and was able to get the barrel on it."