WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Josh Jung had three hits, including a pair of RBI doubles, and Merrill Kelly pitched into the seventh inning as the surging Texas Rangers defeated the Athletics 9-3 on Saturday night for their fourth consecutive victory.
Wyatt Langford and Dylan Moore homered for the Rangers (70-67), who have won seven of eight to pull within 2 1/2 games of Seattle for the final American League wild card.
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Athletics' Brent Rooker runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy looks to the field before a baseball game against the Athletics Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers pitcher Merrill Kelly throws to the Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers' Wyatt Langford runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers' Adolis García celebrates in the dugout after scoring during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Kyle Higashioka delivered two RBI singles and rookie Michael Helmen had an early two-run double. Adolis García also had three of Texas' 17 hits as every Rangers batter got at least one.
Kelly (11-7) allowed three runs and six hits while throwing just 79 pitches in 6 1/3 innings. Handed a 4-0 lead, he gave up solo homers to Lawrence Butler and Brent Rooker in the third.
Rooker finished with three hits, but Texas won its fifth straight against the A’s and leads the season series 7-5.
Athletics starter Mason Barnett (0-1) was tagged for five runs and eight hits over four-plus innings in his major league debut. He was lifted after Langford homered leading off the fifth to make it 5-2.
Langford robbed Darell Hernaiz of a home run to left field in the fifth. Athletics left fielder Carlos Cortes returned the favor in the sixth against Higashioka.
Following the homers by Butler and Rooker in the third, Kelly retired his next 10 batters until Jacob Wilson singled leading off the seventh.
Rangers RHP Jacob deGrom (10-6, 2.79 ERA) faces right-hander J.T. Ginn (2-5, 4.96) in the series finale Sunday.
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Athletics' Brent Rooker runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the third inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers manager Bruce Bochy looks to the field before a baseball game against the Athletics Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers pitcher Merrill Kelly throws to the Athletics during the first inning of a baseball game Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers' Wyatt Langford runs the bases after hitting a solo home run during the fifth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
Texas Rangers' Adolis García celebrates in the dugout after scoring during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Athletics Saturday, Aug. 30, 2025, in West Sacramento, Calif. (AP Photo/Sara Nevis)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States for talks Saturday on a U.S.-led diplomatic push to end the nearly 4-year-old war as Russian attacks again took aim at Ukraine's power grid, cutting electricity and heating in freezing temperatures.
Kyrylo Budanov, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said he arrived in the U.S. to discuss “the details of the peace agreement.”
Writing on the Telegram messaging app, Budanov said he, together with Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Davyd Arakhamia, would meet with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.
Also on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Saturday that the principal task for the Ukrainian delegation was to convey how ongoing Russian strikes are undermining diplomacy.
The strikes, he said, are “constantly worsening even the small opportunities for dialogue that existed. The American side must understand this.”
Zelenskyy's latest comments came after he said Friday that the delegation would try to finalize with U.S. officials documents for a proposed peace settlement that relate to postwar security guarantees and economic recovery.
If American officials approve the proposals, the U.S. and Ukraine could sign the documents next week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Zelenskyy said at a Kyiv news conference with Czech President Petr Pavel. Trump plans to be in Davos, according to organizers.
Russia would still need to be consulted on the proposals.
Russia struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s Kyiv and Odesa regions overnight into Saturday, the Ministry of Energy said. More than 20 settlements in the Kyiv region were left without power following the attacks, the ministry wrote on its official Telegram channel.
Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a Russian attack on a critical infrastructure facility in the city's industrial district Saturday could seriously affect power and heating in Ukraine's second-largest city. Three people were wounded in the attack.
“We’re talking about serious strikes on the system that keeps the city warm and lit,” he wrote on Telegram, adding that the system is ”constantly operating at its limits." Each new strike, he said, means “maintaining a stable supply will become even more difficult, and recovery will be longer and harder.”
Zelenskyy said Sunday he held a special energy coordination meeting, noting that the most difficult situations with regard to the energy supply were in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia, and the surrounding regions.
He said Ukraine needed to ramp up the importation of electricity and the acquisition of additional equipment from partners.
Russia has hammered Ukraine’s power grid, especially in winter, throughout the war. It aims to weaken the Ukrainian will to resist in a strategy that Kyiv officials call “weaponizing winter.”
Ukraine’s new energy minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Friday that Russia had conducted 612 attacks on energy targets over last year. That barrage has intensified in recent months as nighttime temperatures plunge to minus 18 degrees Celsius (0 Fahrenheit).
Ukraine has introduced emergency measures, including temporarily easing curfew restrictions to allow people to go whenever they need to public heating centers set up by the authorities, Shmyhal said. He said hospitals, schools and other critical infrastructure remain the top priority for electricity and heat supplies.
Officials have instructed state energy companies Ukrzaliznytsia, Naftogaz and Ukroboronprom to urgently purchase imported electricity covering at least 50% of their own consumption, according to Shmyhal.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, left, shakes hands with Czech Republic's President Petr Pavel during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)
Snow covered, damaged Russian military vehicles are on display in downtown Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
