The Texas Rangers avoided a sweep in Milwaukee by putting together a 7-4 win over the Brewers, and they did it the hard way after another rough opening.
Texas opened the game by coming up empty with runners in scoring position in the top of the first, then watched Kumar Rocker let the first four Brewers reach in the bottom half. That left the Rangers in a 2-0 hole after the first inning for the third straight game in the series.
From there, though, Texas finally answered. A two-out rally from the bottom of the order got the Rangers on the board in the second, and one inning later Ezequiel Duran tied things up with his 15th home run of the season.
Duran kept carrying the offense in the fifth. He came through again with a two-run ground-rule double to give Texas its first lead of the weekend.
Rocker’s afternoon ended after three innings and 86 pitches. He settled down after the shaky first, holding Milwaukee scoreless over his final two frames, but the short outing left the bullpen with plenty to cover.
The relief crew handled it. Tyler Alexander worked a pair of scoreless innings, Adam Macko added another scoreless frame, and even though Jordan Montgomery gave up a two-run home run, Jacob Junis and Jacob Latz closed it out.
Texas kept padding the lead, too. Joc Pederson added a solo homer in the sixth, and Jake Burger and Cody Freeman each knocked in insurance runs with RBI singles in the seventh.
It was the kind of win that didn’t require any big-picture spin. The Rangers are still not better than the Brewers, and the road trip was still a rough one against a pair of first-place teams. But they did what they had to do to keep from getting swept, and they did it by fighting back after a bad start.
Duran was the obvious centerpiece. He drove in three of Texas’ seven runs, erased the early deficit with his homer, and then delivered the big go-ahead hit later on. For a weekend that was supposed to belong to Milwaukee, he was the Rangers regular who looked most capable of matching up with the Brewers, and that was enough to send Texas home with one win instead of none.
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