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Buck plates winning run as Athletics top Rangers

Sep 23, 2008 - 6:54 AM By Jay Miller PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

ARLINGTON, Texas (Ticker) -- Travis Buck's 11th-inning single scored Cliff Pennington to give the Oakland Athletics a 4-3 win over the Texas Rangers on Monday.

The win moved the A's (75-81) into second place in the American League West Division and dashed the Rangers' hopes of their first .500 season since 2004. Texas (75-82) has not finished as high as second place in the division since winning the AL West in 1999.

"We wanted to do better than .500, but now it won't happen," Texas manager Ron Washington said, adding the pressure is now on to finish strong. "Every day you play there's pressure. I'm human. I want to win as bad as anybody else."

With the announced cancellation of September 6's rainout against the Baltimore Orioles, Oakland is assured of its second consecutive losing record - marking the first time the team has had back-to-back losing seasons since 1993-1998, when they posted six straight sub-.500 campaigns.

The win, however, moved Oakland back into second place for the first time since July 24.

"It would mean a lot to us as a team (to finish in second place) especially the way we started the second half on such a bad note," Oakland starter Greg Smith said.

"We want to finish strong," A's manager Bob Geren said. "We got a great group of guys that are playing hard every day and showing they can win some games. I think that can have some carry-over effect, especially for some of the young pitchers."

Pennington led off the 11th with a double off righthander Luis Mendoza (3-8). Daric Barton struck out by bunting foul before Jeff Baisley walked.

Buck fouled off four pitches before driving a 2-2 offering into right field to score Pennington with the go-ahead run.

Alan Embree (2-4) tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win and Santiago Casilla worked around a leadoff single in the bottom of the 11th to earn his second save.

Hank Blalock tied the contest, 3-3, in the bottom of the ninth with his ninth home run off righthander Brad Ziegler. Oakland's closer, who throws a power sinkerball from a sidearm angle, had only allowed just one homer in 58 previous innings.

"I've just been trying to fight through the second half of the season and get to the end. This is furthest I've gone in the season before," Ziegler said. "I felt good enough to get outs. (Blalock's home run) wasn't the worst pitch I've thrown all year."

With two outs in the inning, Frank Catalanatto delivered a pinch-hit triple that put the winning run 90 feet away, but pinch hitter Gerald Laird was unable to deliver off Embree, sending the game to extra innings.

"After we got tied up, it was a just a matchup of the bullpens. Theirs' threw up zeroes and we ended up giving up a run," Washington said. "We have two more games with them. If we take the next two, we'll feel pretty good about ourselves."