What is the story about?
Rangers
7, Red Sox 3
- Your Texas Rangers are back to .500 for the first time since August 24.
- Your Texas Rangers are in first place, also for the first time since August 24.
- This is thanks to a come-from-behind win against the hated Red Sox of Boston, with MacKenzie Gore and Nathan Eovaldi contributing four innings apiece as part of a Jakob Junis sandwich.
- MacKenzie Gore didn’t look right from the outset, walking Roman Anthony on four pitches to start the game, the first three of which were not close. Anthony came around to score when Willson Contreras pulverized a poorly located slider, with the ball ultimately coming down in the seats for a two run homer.
- Gore settled down for the next few innings, though his velocity was down, and Robby Ahlstrom was warming early, in apparent anticipation of having to come into the game.
- It turned out that Gore was dealing with back and shoulder spasms throughout the outing. Though he was able to navigate the second, third and fourth innings, a walk and a hard hit single off the glove of Josh Jung to start the fifth resulted in Jakob Junis coming into the game.
- With runners on first and third and no outs and the score tied at 2, Junis got a strikeout, a groundout, and a strikeout. Unfortunately, he also had the ball slip out of his glove while standing on the rubber, resulting in a balk which brought home a run to make it 3-2 Boston.
- All that did is make the game more the thrilling for those of us rooting for the home team, though.
- Nathan Eovaldi, summoned to pitch the sixth after the Rangers tied up the game in the bottom of the fifth, gave up a single to the first batter he faced, then hit the third batter he faced. Not an auspicious start.
- Eovaldi then retired the final 11 batters he faced, reminding us all of why we got his face tattooed on our backs that one time.
- Nailbiting though much of the game was, a three run rally in the bottom of the seventh allowed sphincters to finally relax a bit, with Corey Seager adding an insurance run in the eighth.
- It would have been fun if the Rangers had taken the lead with Junis in the game, and thus Eovaldi could have gotten a four inning save, but I’m sure he’s fine with the win.
- The Rangers were 7 for 16 with runners in scoring position. That seems like a lot of at bats with runners in scoring position, a lot of hits with runners in scoring position, and a very good success rate with runners in scoring position.
- In fact, I’m wondering how the Rangers didn’t score more runs, given that.
- Everybody in the starting lineup got a hit, which is fun. The Nicky Lopez fans out there — and I know that you are legion — got to see their hero enter the game as a pinch runner, which had to have been thrilling.
- The Rangers are now 9-6 in their last 15 games. They’ve been playing of late like, well, like we’ve thought they are capable of playing, and that they haven’t been doing much of this season.
- So now the Rangers are in first place in the American League West again, tied with the Houston Astros, after the Astros lost at home to the Royals. And yes, the Astros have the tiebreaker advantage, but I’m not going to worry about that right now, I’m just going to enjoy seeing the Rangers with a “—” next to their name in the games back column.
- Texas is a game back in the Wild Card standings, but because the Guardians beat the White Sox, the Rangers are a game back of Chicago rather than Cleveland, which is bad because the Rangers have the tiebreaker advantage over Cleveland but not Chicago.
- Toronto is a half game back of Texas and Houston the Wild Card race, and Texas has the tiebreaker over Toronto, and is also playing Toronto this weekend in a three game set which should likely be meaningful.
- Oh, and Baltimore, despite being sellers, are still just a game and a half behind Texas and Houston, and a game behind Toronto, for the Wild Card Three spot.
- Exciting, scoreboard-watching September baseball! Woo hoo!!!
- MacKenzie Gore touched 95.9 mph on his fastball, averaging 94.0 mph. Jakob Junis threw one fastball that was 93.0 mph. Nathan Eovaldi’s fastball topped out at 93.7 mph.
- Jake Burger had a 110.2 mph double. Brandon Nimmo had a 105.3 mph double. Justin Foscue had a 103.5 mph single. Josh Jung had a 101.6 mph single and a 100.3 mph double.
- Let us see a sweep in the finale, Rangers.
