Today at 3:35 p.m. ET, the Texas Rangers (35-36) and Oakland Athletics (43-28) take the field for the rubber game of their three-game set live from the O.co Coliseum in Oakland. The game can be live streamed for free here. Texas fans can hear all of the action on 103.3 ESPN while Oakland fans can do the same on 95.7 The Game.
Texas plays the sixth contest of a nine-game road trip it is currently 2-3 on while Oakland continues a 10-game homestand that it is 3-2 on thus far. The Rangers won Monday's game 14-8 while the Athletics bounced back with a 10-6 victory on Tuesday.
Nick Tepesch (2-2, 3.94 ERA) toes the rubber for Texas while Oakland counters with Sonny Gray, who is 6-3 with a 2.93 ERA thus far this season.
Oakland enters atop the American League West with the best record in the AL while Texas is in fourth place and eight games back.
With the season series nodded at 4-4 between the AL West rivals, Tepesch will look to pitch as well as he did against the Seattle Mariners on Friday, when he lasted 6.1 innings and allowed just two hits and two walks.
"Everything was working and I was commanding it," Tepesch said per MLB.com. "That's what it takes. It's just a matter of being aggressive in the zone, throwing my pitches and not holding back."
After a rough start to his outing against the New York Yankees on Friday, Gray retired 13 of the final 14 hitters he faced in a loss.
"I really just tried to slow myself down and focus on what we've been working on with [pitching coach] Curt [Young], trusting my stuff and really not trying to do too much," Gray told MLB.com afterwards.
Texas outfielder Alex Rios leads the MLB with five triples and ranks tied for second in the AL in hits (88) and fifth in batting average (.320). Fellow outfielder Shin-Soo Choo has been patient this season, ranking fourth in the AL with 42 walks. He is hitting .249 with six homers and 24 RBI in his first season in Texas.
Rangers second baseman Elvis Andrus is hitting .268 with two homers and 17 RBI this season and ranks fifth in the AL with 16 stolen bases. Third baseman Adrian Beltre leads the Rangers with eight long balls and 35 RBI.
Oakland third baseman Josh Donaldson is tied for fourth in the AL with 17 homers and ranks second with 54 runs scored while coming into play with a .251 average and 51 RBI. A's outfielder Brandon Moss comes into Wednesday's game with 54 RBI, which ties him for third in the AL.
The Rangers and Athletics close out their series with the rubber game this afternoon at the O.co Coliseum in Oakland.
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