Rangers 6, Royals 4
- And like that, the Rangers are back to one game below .500.
- An odd game, that was.
- MacKenzie Gore was dealing with traffic throughout his five innings of work, and it feels kind of surprising that he only allowed two runs.
- Gore faced 26 batters, gave up hits to 8 of them, and walked three of them. He did strike out six, which helped with the “stranding runners” thing, but still.
- He had two on with one out in the first, but got out of it. Allowed a double and a single for the first run in the second. Left the bases loaded in the third by striking out Jac Caglianone. Allowed just one baserunner in the fourth, which was nice, but then issued a two out walk then a pair of singles in the fifth to score the second Royals run.
- Not a great game for Gore, but could have been worse.
- Peyton Gray, brought into a tie game in the sixth, gave up a run to put the Rangers down one. After the Rangers tied it in the top of the seventh, Tyler Alexander came in for the bottom of the seventh and gave up a run to put the Rangers behind again.
- This is when I think spirits got particularly low. Texas had a lead, saw the Royals tie the game, then take the lead, responded by getting it tied up again, and saw the lead immediately vanish once again.
- This is the sort of thing that saps your confidence, makes you doubt the likelihood of success. Has you steeling yourself for another close loss.
- See, but the resilient Rangers didn’t give up! And after tying the game again in the eighth, the Rangers bullpen did its job, getting two shutout innings from Jakob Junis and a shutout inning from Jacob Latz!
- Yes, Latz made us anxious, I acknowledge that.
- With the Zombie Runner already on second for the tenth inning, Latz allowed a Caglianone single, and then walked Nick Loftin.
- Look at that. Bases loaded. No one out. The Royals in position to walk it off against the Rangers, leading us to wail and gnash our teeth and ask why we ever became fans of this accursed franchise.
- The Latz Man got the job done, though. A strikeout of Isaac Collins, a 5-3 GIDP of Tyler Tolbert, and game over. The Rangers got to give hugs on the field to each other in celebration.
- Hugs, not drugs.
- On the offensive side of the ball, Seth Lugo was cruising until he took a line drive off the forehead in the fourth.
- That was one of the scariest things I’ve seen on the baseball field. Brandon Nimmo hit a line drive back up the middle at 106.6 mph that smacked Lugo in the forehead and caromed off into right field. Lugo went down, and I think everyone’s immediate thought was that he was seriously hurt.
- Amazingly, though, he got up almost immediately. Nimmo, who was a long-time teammate of Lugo’s with the Mets, rushed over to him to check on him, as did the Royals medical staff. You could see a big red mark on his forehead where he was hit.
- Lugo left the game, but did so under his own power, which is fortunate.
- Mason Black came in for Lugo and had issues immediately, giving up a single to Wyatt Langford, hitting Ezequiel Duran, and then issuing a four pitch walk to Evan Carter. Kyle Higashioka struck out looking on a 3-2 pitch for the second out, bringing up offensive catalyst Nicky Lopez, who singled to right.
- Langford scored. Duran came out, appeared to be a dead duck, but then appeared to slide around the tag of Salvador Perez. He was called out, but immediately signaled to the bench to challenge the call. It certainly looked like, on replay, that Perez didn’t make the tag — especially since Perez, after Duran slid past him, went back to tag Duran, something he wouldn’t have done if he thought he’d applied the tag in the first place.
- The play in question:
- Alas, the call stood, the Rangers were hosed, and the inning was over with Texas up 2-1 instead of 3-1.
- I was thinking about that call quite a bit in the later innings with the Rangers down 1.
- The Rangers also got hosed by replay in the next inning, when Josh Jung was hit by a pitch, only to have the call challenged and the replay booth say the ball hit the handle of Jung’s bat, not Jung. Texas went from runners on first and second with one out to Jung striking out, then Nimmo flying out to end the inning.
- The Rangers blew a golden opportunity in the sixth, when Duran and Carter had back to back one out bunt singles, and then Higashioka walked. Offensive catalyst Nicky Lopez, in perfect position to break up what was then a 2-2 tie, hit into a double play to end the inning, I regret to inform you.
- Again, a sequence I was thinking about in the late innings, when it seemed a loss was looming.
- Jake Burger saved the day — or at least got the Rangers into extra innings — though. Entering the game at DH for Joc Pederson, who apparently injured himself drawing a walk, Burger homered to lead off the 7th, evening the score after Gray had allowed a run.
- Then, in the eighth, after a walk, walk, HBP sequence, Burger hit a fly ball to center that didn’t leave the park, but was deep enough to bring home the tying run (again). A Seager walk then loaded the bases with two outs, but the Rangers left the sacks loaded once again when Josh Jung flew out.
- Texas stranded 14 runners in all. That includes leaving the bases loaded again in the 10th. The good news there is that Elias Diaz — who had replaced Higashioka, who had been pinch run for in the eighth — doubled home Duran earlier in the inning, and Josh Jung drew a bases loaded walk to give the Rangers an insurance run. Brandon Nimmo smoke a line drive to right-center that was flagged down for the third out, and yes, it would have been nice had it touched grass and brought home all three runners, but what can you do?
- With Seattle losing, the Rangers are back to two games back in the A.L. West, along with continuing to hold the WC3 spot, where they have a half-game advantage over the A’s and a game advantage over Toronto.
- Keep the faith, guys!
- MacKenzie Gore hit 97.7 mph with his fastball, averaging 95.4 mph. Peyton Gray hit 94.3 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball topped out at 93.6 mph. Jakob Junis touched 94.5 mph with his sinker. Jacob Latz’s fastball maxed out at at 98.1 mph.
- Brandon Nimmo had a 106.6 mph single, a 103.8 mph fly out and a 101.2 mph single. Corey Seager had a 106.4 mph groundout and a 104.8 mph fly out. Elias Diaz had a 101.7 mph double. Nicky Lopez had a 100.9 mph single. Josh Jung had a 100.2 mph single. Joc Pederson had a 100.2 mph fly out.
- An afternoon finale in Kansas City to get Texas back to .500. Let’s make this happen.
