Cotton keeps making it look easy as A’s rout Texas

OAKLAND — Athletics rookie right-hander Jharel Cotton continued the terrific start to his Major League career and the Rangers were the latest team to be impressed.

Cotton sent the Rangers back into a tie with the Red Sox for the best record in the American League by pitching the Athletics to a 7-1 victory on Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum. Cotton, making his fourth Major League start, allowed just one run on three hits over a career-high seven innings on just 70 pitches. Cotton is now 2-0 with a 1.44 ERA in his four starts.

“Seems like they’re all the same to me,” A’s manager Bob Melvin said. “You know they’re trying to be aggressive and get on his fastball before he can get to his offspeed stuff, and he just continues to impress all the way around with his composure, the mix of pitches, not afraid of the stage and who he’s facing. We have a good one here.”

“Sunday day game, they wanted to get away, so they were swinging at every pitch, and I was on the mound like, ‘Thank you, keep swinging,'” Cotton said, smiling. “That was good for me.”

The only run came on Adrian Beltre’s 32nd home run in the seventh. Beltre had two hits on the afternoon, giving him 2,937 for his career and passing Barry Bonds for sole possession of 35th all-time.

The Rangers and the Red Sox — who won their 11th straight by beating the Rays on Sunday — are now 92-64 going into the final week of the season. The Indians are right behind at 90-65 after their loss to the White Sox on Sunday.

Head-to-head matchup would be the first tiebreaker, but the Rangers and the Red Sox split six games during the regular season. The second tiebreaker is record within the division and right now that edge goes to the Rangers. They also won five of seven against the Indians.

“It’s crucial,” Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. “You see our record (50-25) at home, we play well at home. We need to go home and play clean baseball and keep our energy level up. We were able to rest some guys and get them off their feet so we should be fresh.”

Rangers starter Colby Lewis lasted just 1 1/3 innings as the Athletics scored seven runs off him in the second inning. It is …

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