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ARLINGTON, Texas -- While the Texas Rangers are getting close to clinching another AL West title, their top two pitchers are struggling a bit.Yu Darvish matched a career high allowing seven runs, a night after All-Star lefty Cole Hamels had another subpar outing, and the AL-best Rangers lost 11-2 to the Oakland Athletics on Saturday night.We believe in those two guys, in Cole and Darvish, manager Jeff Banister said. Still believe theyre as good as there is out there.Darvish (5-5) struck out eight in his five innings, but walked four batters -- all of those runners scored -- and allowed two homers.Ive been having good command throughout this year. Today I didnt have it, Darvish said through his translator. I think its because I wasnt getting a good feel for it physically, and a feel for the pitches. Im not talking about pain or anything, its just the feel. I just didnt pitch well today.Joey Wendle led off the game with his first major league homer and Marcus Semien also went deep against Darvish.Carlos Gomez homered for the Rangers (88-61), whose magic number to clinch the division title dropped to five after Houston won 2-1 at Seattle later Saturday night. The Astros and Mariners are both 9 1/2 games back in the AL West with two weeks left in the regular season.Hamels has allowed at least six runs in three of his four starts, including the series opener Friday night against the As when he allowed six runs in six innings before the Rangers rallied to win the game with two outs in the ninth.There would be no big comebacks Saturday night, after which both Hamels and Darvish will likely have no more than two more starts before the postseason.Darvish has put together some quality starts in there, Banister said. With Cole, obviously, weve seen some challenges, hes been nicked a little bit, but still, these guys are still throwing quality pitches. ... I feel like that these guys are going to continue to find their rhythm and make good pitches for us.Raul Alcantara (1-1), among five As pitchers to make their MLB debuts this season with a start, had three strikeouts without a walk. He pitched into the sixth, when he allowed a two-run homer to Gomez.Danny Valencia added another three-run homer for the As, his 17th, in the eighth off Dario Alvarez.Wendle, a rookie second baseman in his 15th career game, hit a 1-1 pitch into the left-field seats. His sacrifice fly in the second made it 4-0, after Darvish had walked the bases loaded to start the second and Bruce Maxwell hit a two-run singleSemiens three-run homer in the fifth, his 26th, made it 7-0 against Darvish.I noticed that early the fastball command wasnt there. So you get him looking in one spot, Semien said. Hes going to throw it in there. He throws a lot of offspeed too, so we were able to key in on one pitch and did a good job.NO A FOR YU VS OAKLANDDarvish is now 2-9 in 13 career starts against Oakland. No other team has beaten Darvish more than four times. When Darvish last faced Oakland -- a day after his 30th birthday exactly a month ago Saturday -- he struck out nine and walked one in seven innings in a 6-2 victory. Before that, he had gone 0-8 in 10 starts against the As since winning against them more than four years earlier in only his eighth game after coming from Japan.TRAINERS ROOMAthletics: RHP Sonny Gray, out since Aug. 7 with a strained right forearm, threw all of his pitches during a 31-pitch bullpen session. He will get a couple of days off before another bullpen, and could still potentially pitch in another game this season.Rangers: DH/1B Prince Fielder was in the dugout for the first time since announcing last month that he couldnt play again after a second spinal fusion surgery. He got his neck brace off just more than a week ago.UP NEXTAthletics: Since eight scoreless innings in his first start for Oakland, lefty Ross Detwiler is 1/3 with a 5.25 ERA his last seven games (six starts).Rangers: Colby Lewis (6-2, 3.31) makes his only his second start since a two-month stint on the DL with a strained right lat. The right-hander allowed three runs, all on solo homers, in 5 1/3 innings at the Los Angeles Angels last Sunday.NMD On Sale . Those lessons were more than enough to overwhelm the Utah Jazz. Lou Williams scored 25 points and the Hawks continued their offensive upswing as they rolled to an easy 118-85 victory over the Jazz on Friday night, winning their third straight and for the fourth time in five games. NMD Cheap .R. Smith realized how easily basketball can be taken from him, and he wasnt going to take his place in the NBA for granted anymore. https://www.cheapnmdoutlet.com/ . General manager Jarmo Kekalainen told Aaron Portzline of The Columbus Dispatch on Friday that he wants to see Gaboriks contributions go beyond the scoresheet before considering a long-term deal for the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent. NMD Sale .com) - The Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks both take aim at their first wins of the season on Saturday, as the Canucks open their home slate at Rogers Arena. NMD Store . - Levi Browns tenure at left tackle for the Pittsburgh Steelers is over before it even began.With their recent stretch of wins, the Toronto Blue Jays have caught the attention of fans across Major League Baseball. Theyve also caught the eye of the betting community. The odds on the Blue Jays winning the American League East have improved from 15-1 before the streak to 5-2. Taking it one step further, the odds of the Jays winning the American League pennant have moved from 16-1 before the 11 straight wins to 13-2.dddddddddddd And to win the World Series, the Blue are now a 12-1 shot, compared to 40-1 before the current streak. Odds courtesy of Bodog, www.Bodog.ca ' ' '