The Texas Rangers scored four runs while the Boston Red Sox scored two runs.
The Rangers, in need of as many wins as they can get from here on out, returned home to begin their final homestand of the season with the first leg of three against AL Wild Card-leading Boston.
Texas had the non-Cal Quantrill guy you’d want on the mound with Jacob deGrom starting the opener. It would seem that perhaps tonight was a poor groin night for the achy veteran, however, as he lasted only five innings and sometimes
labored through his 92 pitches.
But deGrom also mostly kept Boston off the board aside from a two-run home run hiccup from No. 9 batter Nick Sogard after the Rangers had grabbed an early 4-0 lead.
How that lead came about is something of a lost media mystery if you’re an at-home Rangers Sports Network viewer. All of the Rangers four runs came in a window of time when the broadcast feed had gone down. I guess an opportunity to see Texas go up on Boston was a Shed exclusive tonight.
With the Rangers putting together a rally with two runners on base and Elias Diaz at the plate with two outs, the telecast suddenly cut to commercials before showing a segment of Elvis Andrus and Jared Sandler learning how to do the two-step. In The Shed, Diaz was doing a little two-step of his own as he doubled in the game’s first runs.
Right as the RSN switched gears to show Andrus and Sandler trying their hand at running the mascot Dot Race, Danny Jansen and Justin Foscue drew two-out walks and Corey Seager received a gift with a blooper to shallow center field that Boston shortstop Trevor Story seemed to have a play on before letting it drift beyond his reach as two more runs scampered in.
The game returned to our televisions in time for the Red Sox to bat in the top of the third, which is when Sogard took deGrom deep. For us TV baseball watchers, it could have been assumed that the Rangers were down a couple of runs but within the pocket dimension of The Shed, it was known that Texas was up 4-2.
And then the game just stayed at that score the rest of the way because baseball is weird like that. It turns out, if the Rangers cannot be observed, they’re pretty good!
The Rangers needed four innings from arms not named deGrom and that meant a heavy bullpen day. The Rangers were off on Monday so everyone was a little more rested and up to the task. Chase Silseth pitched a scoreless sixth inning, and Tyler Alexander did the same in the seventh. In the eighth, however, Robert Garcia was elevated to setup duty and ran into some trouble.
With one out, the Rangers brought in Jacob Latz for another of his patented extended outings. Called on to face Rangers killer and Shed lover Wilyer Abreu with two on, Latz got a ground out and then intentionally walked Story before striking out pinch hitter Andruw Monasterio to leave the bases loaded.
Latz had a more usual scoreless frame in the ninth to pick up his 30th save of the season and give the Rangers a big win in the opener.
Neither Houston nor Cleveland lost so the Rangers didn’t make up any ground on the leaders of their two avenues to the playoffs, but Toronto lost which allowed Texas to leapfrog the Blue Jays for the nearest contender behind the Guardians for the final Wild Card spot at a game and a half back.
Player of the Game: Latz once again went the extra mile with a five-out save as he continues to be an x-factor, multi-inning weapon at the end of games for the Rangers if they can get to him with a lead.
Up Next: The Rangers and Red Sox will play the second game of this series with LHP MacKenzie Gore next up to pitch for Texas opposite LHP Jake Bennett for Boston.
The Wednesday evening first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CDT and you can catch it on the Rangers Sports Network.
