Need more Nomar: Nomar Mazara hits the first of two solo homers. But it wasn’t enough as the Rangers were swept in Oakland.

Well, Nomar Mazara is heating up.

That’s the good news.

Actually, that’s not the good news. The good news is the Rangers are leaving Oakland, a town so undesirable, if a tornado ripped through downtown, it would do $200 million in improvements.

Since 2017, Texas is 4-18 in Oakland. With this three-game beatdown, they have been swept in Oakland four times in these past two-years-and-change.

And change is certainly something the Rangers need.

A change in their fortunes in Oakland. A change in their fortunes on the road. With yesterday’s frustrating 6-5 loss to the Athletics, the Rangers are now 2-7 on the road.

They are playing .714 ball in Arlington, which is second-best in all of baseball (St. Louis, at 10-3, has a .769 winning percentage).

They are playing .222 ball away from Arlington, which is second-worst in all of baseball (Los Angeles Angels, at 2-9, play at a .182 road clip).

What made yesterday’s game so frustrating is they kept clawing back but could never get ahead. Down 3-1, Mazara homered, then the next inning Forsythe homered to even it up.

Only to see Oakland score two more.

So, Mazara homered again. The next inning Mathis scored on a wild pitch to tie it again. But that was it.

Five one-run innings. They couldn’t string together anything meaningful. Heck, they couldn’t string together anything at all. They never really had much of a rally. They had two runners on in only the first and the last innings. They led off the game with two hits, in fact, then, as so often happens on the road, nothing materialized. And they couldn’t take advantage of two walks in the ninth. That rally died with DeShields’s double play ball.

Mazara went 2-for-4, though, with two home runs. That, the day after he went 2-for-5 with a double. That, after going 0-for-19 his four previous games. So there is some good there.

So now they head into Seattle a game over .500, full of questions. Rougned Odor should be joining them sometime during the Mariner series. How can they take Danny Santana out of the lineup, especially in light of how weak the road offense is? Two members of the Tommy John Trio are down. Where do they find starters? They’ve scored two runs or fewer in four of their seven road losses. Where are they going to find the offense? They’ve scored five runs in each of their last two road losses, which should be enough to win most games. Where are they going to find pitching? Taylor Hearn makes his major league debut tonight, months, maybe even a full season, before they would have wanted the left-hander to. How ready is he? What will this do to his growth? How could they have allowed themselves to get into this situation? How could they have allowed themselves to get into this situation yet again?

There is one question with a simple answer, though: When are the Rangers in Oakland again? Not until July 27, 28, and 29. That’s not for 81 more games.

Maybe that’s the good news.

*****
TONIGHT’S GAME:Taylor Hearn (—, -.–) vs. Miguel Gonzalez (4-0, 3.32)
Game time: 9:10