OAKLAND -- There was much jawing back and forth between Rangers pitchers and Athletics outfielder Ramon Laureano on Saturday, although nothing physically came out of it.

The big collision took place in the seventh inning, when the Rangers rally came up short in a 5-4 loss to the A's at the Coliseum. The Rangers trailed 5-0 against Oakland starter Homer Bailey until their bats came alive with a four-run rally.

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They almost tied it, but Athletics right fielder Chad Pinder threw out Elvis Andrus trying to score from second base on a single by Nomar Mazara in what was the pivotal moment of an emotional game.

“We have been doing that all series, getting those big two-out hits,” said Rangers manager Chris Woodward, who was ejected during a benches-clearing incident in the eighth inning. “Our guys are fighting. We put ourselves in position to tie the ballgame, and the guy made a good throw.”

Texas starter Adrian Sampson put the team in a hole by serving up four homers for five runs in six innings, and the Rangers had managed just four singles against Bailey going into the seventh. Bailey struck out Rougned Odor to start the inning before Asdrubal Cabrera singled through the right side. Logan Forsythe struck out but Jeff Mathis doubled to right, moving Cabrera to third.

Danny Santana followed with a two-run triple to right, ending Bailey’s night. Left-hander Ryan Buchter took over, and Willie Calhoun doubled to left against him to make it 5-3. Right-hander Yusmeiro Petit came in to face Andrus, who singled to center. Calhoun scored, and Andrus ended up at second base on the throw.

That brought up Mazara. He smashed a 111 mph line drive right at Pinder in right field, and third base coach Tony Beasley took a chance by sending Andrus home.

“I threw up a prayer,” Beasley said. “I took a shot with two outs, hoping it would be a bad throw. If he makes a decent throw, I knew he was out.”

Woodward said Beasley did the right thing in that situation.

“One of those plays, I would have been mad if Beasley hadn’t sent him,” Woodward said. “With two outs, it’s up to our players to get as much secondary lead as possible. We tell them all the time, with two outs, we are going to send you. It’s on them to get as big of a secondary lead as they can and get as good of a jump off the baseball as they can, even on anything hard.”

The Rangers were running on an inexperienced right fielder. Pinder is a valuable utility player, just like Santana is for the Rangers, but this was just his ninth start in right field this season and his first in three weeks.

His throw was right on target to catcher Chris Herrmann.

“That's impressive for a guy that hasn't played out there a whole lot,” Athletics manager Bob Melvin said. “We've seen his arm in the past and he works on it all the time, just doesn't get enough reps to where you think in that situation he would be able to come up with a throw like that. It was obviously the key play of the game."

The throw had Andrus beat easily. He thought about diving but Herrmann had the plate blocked completely. He ran over Herrmann, but the catcher held onto the ball for the out.

“I got caught up in the middle,” Andrus said. “I was kind of wanting to stop, then dive, so that's when I just kinda of ... weird thing that I did there, but when I turned to see the ball, it was already at home plate. It wasn't a good feeling.”

The two got off the ground together in a show of no hard feelings from either player.

“I don’t like getting a guy thrown out like that,” Beasley said. “That’s 100 percent accountable on me. I’ll take that one.”