Jake Burger hit two homers and drove four runs and Nathan Eovaldi pitched seven shutout innings to help the Texas Rangers record an 8-1 victory over the Athletics on Monday night at West Sacramento, Calif.
Josh Smith and Josh Jung each drove in two runs in the eighth inning as the Rangers broke the game open while winning the opener of a four-game series. Joc Pederson had three of Texas’ 11 hits.
Eovaldi (2-2) allowed three hits and two walks while striking out seven as the Rangers earned their second straight win and fifth in the past seven. The 36-year-old threw just 84 pitches and lowered his ERA from 7.98 to 5.40.
Lawrence Butler homered in the eighth for the A’s, who had a five-game winning streak snapped.
Luis Severino (0-2) allowed four runs and six hits — including both of Burger’s homers — over six innings to continue his struggles at Sutter Health Park. He struck out seven and walked three.
Severino, who ripped the home ballpark last June, is now 2-10 with a 6.01 ERA in 16 starts at the facility.
Severino issued one-out walks in the first inning to Evan Carter and Corey Seager before Burger came up and ripped a 1-1 sinker over the fence in left-center to give Texas a quick 3-0 lead.
His next time up, leading off the third, Burger went the opposite way with a 1-1 sinker and deposited the ball over the fence in right. It was Burger’s fourth career homer off Severino and the eighth two-homer game of his career.
Seager nearly had a homer in the fifth inning, but his drive to right-center was caught above the short wall by Butler.
The Rangers were helped by some good fortune during their four-run eighth inning that blew the game open.
Seager led off with a ground-rule double, and one out later, Pederson hit a bouncer up the middle that Athletics shortstop Jack Wilson was in position to field. However, second base umpire Edwin Jimenez was hit by the ball, giving Pederson an infield hit with Seager moving to third.
After Kyle Higashioka walked to load the bases against Jack Perkins, Smith delivered a two-run single to make it 6-0 and Jung followed with a two-run double for an eight-run bulge.
Butler’s one-out homer to right in the bottom of the eighth came off Luis Curvelo.
