OAKLAND Rollie Fingers Jersey , Calif. — has the unenviable task of trying to slow down one of baseball’s hottest hitters, the Oakland Athletics‘ Khris Davis, when the two American League West clubs conclude a three-game series Wednesday afternoon.Davis doomed the Rangers for a second consecutive night Tuesday, smacking his 38th home run of the season, a two-run shot, as part of a three-RBI performance in a 6-0 victory.Davis also homered in Monday’s 9-0 romp, and now has nine home runs in 15 games against Texas this season.Article continues below ...A’s manager Bob Melvin shrugged his shoulders when informed of Davis’ dominance of the Rangers after Tuesday’s win, insisting he was even more pleased with his clean-up hitter’s two-out, two-strike RBI single than his homer.“Just as impressive are his RBIs,” Melvin said. “He’s getting better. Now he’s driving in runs with two-out singles. That club wasn’t in his bag for a while.”Davis’ three RBIs raised his season total to 102, giving him three straight years with 100 or more. He established a career-high last year with 110.He has 36 more games in which to get the nine RBIs he needs to surpass his personal best. And he has four more shots at the Rangers, against whom he has hit nine homers with a whopping 24 RBIs in the clubs’ first 15 meetings.Davis will dig in Wednesday against Minor (9-6, 4.61 ERA), against whom he has one career home run and two other hits in eight at-bats.Minor collared Davis with an 0-for-2 in July when he pitched the first five innings of a 13-10 home loss to the A’s. One of the outs was a deep fly to left field.Minor left that game with a 4-2 lead after five innings http://www.athleticsfanproshop.com/authentic-khris-davis-jersey , only to see the Rangers’ bullpen implode.The 30-year-old has pitched well in his last 11 starts, going 5-2 with a 3.53 ERA.He sees outings like Wednesday’s as a potential springboard to future success.“The first half of the season was pretty bad,” he said of a 4-4 start with a 5.76 ERA. “The last couple of weeks or month I think I’ve pitched better. But I’m actually looking forward to the offseason to get better and come back next year and have a complete, good full season.”Minor is 1-1 with a 3.68 ERA in five games, including two starts, against the A’s in his career.Oakland will sent right-hander Edwin Jackson (4-2, 2.58) to the mound in search of a three-game sweep.The veteran pitched his worst game of the season at Texas in July in his only previous start against the Rangers this year, failing to get out of the fifth inning after giving up five runs and seven hits.One of the hits was a three-run homer by Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos.The A’s rallied to win the game 6-5.Jackson has started eight games against the Rangers in his career, going 2-3 with a 4.56 ERA. DENVER — Colorado left-hander Kyle Freeland, who has been remarkably consistent all season and particularly effective at Coors Field, will start Friday for the surging Rockies against the Washington Nationals.The Rockies took another step Thursday toward making the postseason in back-to-back years for the first time in their 26-year history with a 5-3 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday. A four-game sweep of the Phillies has extended Colorado’s winning streak to a season-high-tying seven games and reduced their magic number for a postseason appearance to two.In quest of their first National League West title, the Rockies (89-70) lead the division by one game over the Los Angeles Dodgers (88-71), who were off Thursday. The Rockies are two games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals for the second NL wild-card spot. The Cardinals were also idle Thursday.Article continues below ...Freeland (16-7, 2.84) will oppose Joe Ross (0-1, 4.09), who will make his third start for the Nationals since returning from Tommy John surgery in July 2017.Freeland is 7-0 Dave Henderson Jersey , 2.10 in his past 10 starts, nine of which the Rockies have won. The Rockies are 22-10 in games started by Freeland, who has recorded 10 consecutive quality starts and 23 this season.He’s 9-2, 2.36 in 14 starts at Coors Field and ranks third in home ERA among NL pitchers, trailing only Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets (1.54) and the Cardinals’ Miles Mikolas (2.17).Freeland, 25, was 0-3, 5.85 after his first four starts this season. At that point, he and catcher Chris Iannetta realized Freeland had to come inside more often with his four-seam fastball to right-handed hitters. At the same time, Freeland was beginning to get better results from his changeup as a result of following a suggestion from bullpen coach Darren Holmes and dragging his left toe hard when throwing the pitch to take velocity off it.After those first four starts, Freeland has gone 16-4, 2.50 in his subsequent 28 starts, limiting opponents to a .229 average and .629 OPS.“It was early in the season,” Freeland said. “I knew there was a long way to go, and there’s no reason to wash this season just because my first four starts weren’t what I wanted them to be.“There were things I had to realize quickly and I did with the help of Chris and our pitching coaches, realizing we had to stay with my strengths. We have to pitch inside. We have to make the hitters uncomfortable. We can’t just let them get extension all the time and hope that that two-seam (fastball) just gets hit in the ground every single time Dennis Eckersley Jersey , because that’s just not going to happen over the course of 30-32 starts.”Freeland is 1-0, 3.72 in two starts against Washington. Ross is 0-0, 9.64 in one four-inning relief appearance against the Rockies on April 25, 2017, at Coors Field.Ross gave up four runs (three earned) in six innings Friday in a 95-pitch start against the Mets and was the losing pitcher as the Nationals fell 4-2.“The uncertainty of how it will end, if you’ll be back, was the toughest part, I think, for me,” Ross told the Washington Post before his first start for the Nationals earlier this month, referring to his comeback from Tommy John surgery. “But I kind of just went day-by-day, and I am back here now, so it paid off in the end.”