The Texas Rangers finally snapped their skid, and the way they did it made the whole thing feel bigger than a four-day stretch of bad baseball.
Down 3-0 after the second inning, they were staring at the same old mess that has been hanging over them lately. MacKenzie Gore opened the door with what you might call the MacKenzie Gore inning, and the A’s walked right through it.
Two two-out flares put runners on, then Henry Bolte turned the inning into damage with a three-run homer that barely stayed fair and barely cleared the wall. Statcast said only three big league parks would have counted that one as a home run, or two if you’re willing to say Sacramento doesn’t qualify.
Gore settled in after that. He didn’t have a 1-2-3 inning all night, and he was under pressure in just about every frame - runners on in the first and third, doubles allowed in the fourth, fifth and sixth - but he kept Oakland from adding on after Bolte’s blast. He got through 5.2 innings before turning it over to Chase Silseth, who needed just one pitch to finish the sixth.
From there, Skip Schumaker had the chance to lean on Jakob Junis and Jacob Latz for the final three innings, with Junis handling the seventh and Latz covering the eighth and ninth. Latz earned his 12th save of the season in a outing where he went more than one inning. That feels like a lot, because it is a lot by modern standards.
Of course, none of that late-game work matters if the bats stay quiet. The Rangers made sure that didn’t happen.
Nicky Lopez got them started in the fifth, singling home Jake Burger after Burger led off the inning with a double and moved to third on an Austin Wynns sacrifice bunt. And yes, putting down a sacrifice bunt with a runner on second while trailing by three does not exactly scream confidence.
The bigger swing came in the sixth, when the top of the order flipped the game. Brandon Nimmo doubled, Corey Seager followed with an RBI single, and Wyatt Langford then changed a one-run deficit into a one-run lead with a home run into the left-field stands. Langford had been stuck in a rough patch - 2 for 24 coming in, and just .095/.283/.190 in August - so a 3-for-4 night with a homer was exactly what he needed.
The Rangers tacked on once more in the ninth. Evan Carter doubled with one out, and Jarred Kelenic came through with a pinch-hit single to bring him home.
It added up to a comeback win, the kind that gives a club some life: Gore surviving his early trouble, the bullpen finishing the job, and the lineup finding enough offense to pull it out. The result pushed the Rangers back into Wild Card 3 and left them still two games behind Houston.
MacKenzie Gore touched 96.2 mph with his fastball and averaged 94.6. Chase Silseth’s lone pitch was an 83.4 mph sweeper. Jakob Junis reached 92.6 mph with his sinker, and Jacob Latz got up to 95.3 mph with his fastball.
Jake Burger’s double came off the bat at 108.6 mph. Brandon Nimmo logged a 107.8 mph line out and a 102.1 mph groundout.
Wyatt Langford posted a 106.9 mph single, a 106.2 mph single and a 105.1 mph home run. Joc Pederson had a 105.4 mph groundout.
Corey Seager had a 105.0 mph single and a 101.8 mph single. Evan Carter’s double was hit at 102.3 mph.
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Gonzales had only a brief stint before being moved off the roster again, and it was his second time going through that process with Texas. The bullpen shuffle also reflects the broader strain on the pitching staff, with Nathan Eovaldi sidelined and Jordan Montgomery recently back from the 60-day injured list, leaving the Rangers still sorting out how to cover the innings they need. [Read more 🡒]