A’s end transitional road trip with 10-3 loss to Rangers

“This is an opportunity for guys these next six weeks to showcase themselves and not shut it down,” Pinder said. “Even though we may be out of it as far as playoffs, we’re fighting for something. We’re fighting for a spot next year. This is an audition for everyone on this roster — myself included, not just for the A’s but for the other teams, the whole league.”

With a 10-3 loss to the Rangers on Thursday, the A’s finished a trip to Texas that seemed to accelerate their ongoing makeover. They return home to begin a series against Seattle with notable alterations to the team.

The A’s released Lowrie and called up Cal Stevenson for his MLB debut on the last day of their previous home series. Stevenson is getting regular starts in center field. Piscotty was released and Ramón Laureano placed on the injured list Tuesday, further thinning the outfield’s experience. Andrus was released a day later, leaving rookie Nick Allen with a shot to play shortstop every day. Shea Langeliers, the much-anticipated catching prospect, is up with Oakland and made his first start behind the plate Thursday.

“It’s not a secret this year has not gone the way anyone had hoped,” general manager David Forst said on a conference call Tuesday. “But we are going to try to spend what’s left of it preparing for beyond 2022.”

In a year’s time, the pace of the A’s overhaul has been striking. Of the 26-man roster they fielded Aug. 17, 2021, 19 players were no longer in the organization as of Andrus’ release Wednesday. The 54 players they have used this season are two shy of the franchise record — which very well could be broken — and tie their Oakland-era mark, last reached in 2017.

That 2017 team was in the third year of a losing cycle and an influx of arrivals then helped fuel four straight winning seasons. A more apt comparison might be 2007 when, coming off an ALCS appearance, the A’s also used 54 players in the first of three consecutive losing seasons. It’s hard to predict the pace of a rebuild, but a 43-76 record in 2022 leaves much room for improvement.

On Wednesday afternoon, manager Mark Kotsay held a team meeting in which he addressed “how much change this ballclub has been through” and “what it means to be an A,” he said. It echoed themes he struck in spring training when this season’s course was new.

“The expectations for the next 45 games ... haven’t changed,” Kotsay said. “The expectation is to win baseball games, not to develop. We’ll get better, we’ll continue to teach. ... but we’re expecting to win and that doesn’t change.”

Rookie battery: A’s starter Zach Logue gave up seven runs over 4 ⅓ innings in his second rocky outing of the trip. The Astros scored six runs in his 5 ⅓ innings Saturday as Logue rejoined the A’s from Triple-A.

“I think limiting the free passes and getting the leadoff guy out were probably the two biggest things that I didn’t do well today,” Logue said. “When you give guys free bases and let them kind of get a rally started, especially up here, it’s going to be tough to put up zeroes.”

Logue’s six hits allowed included two home runs — Mark Mathias’ solo shot in the second and a three-run homer by Nathaniel Lowe in the fifth. In the fourth, Logue hit and walked his first two batters; both scored, via a single and a sacrifice fly.

Langeliers caught Thursday’s finale, after serving as the designated hitter in his first two MLB games, and showed his touted catch-and-throw ability in the first inning. Marcus Semien tried to steal second; Langeliers nabbed him with an accurate throw. At the plate, Langeliers was 1-for-4 with a double and two strikeouts.

“The throw, the caught stealing, we’re used to seeing that around here with” catcher Sean Murphy, Kotsay said. “But nice for Shea to get his first caught stealing. Overall judging what we saw from behind the plate today, we had a couple of tough pitches to block that got by him, but that’s going to happen.”

On Neuse: Infielder Sheldon Neuse, recalled this week from Triple-A, hit a two-run homer against starter Dane Dunning. In each of his two prior A’s stints this season, Neuse saw a good start give way to a slump and a return to Triple-A.

“I think that’s the biggest thing holding me back right now, keeping me from being consistent, is just kind of my own head, letting me spiral out,” Neuse said. “I think when it starts to go bad a little bit, I press, and I just have to find a way to get back in that groove and figure out what got me there in the beginning.”