What is the story about?
Mariners
6, Rangers 4
- A four game sweep is not in the cards.
- This was, really, a game that the Rangers were fortunate to be up in for as long as they were.
- Jacob deGrom was fine, overall. He was also somewhat fortunate. The Mariners were making good contact off of him throughout, and he had just four strikeouts in the game.
- The Rangers, meanwhile, were not exactly beating up on Mariners starter Logan Gilbert.
- Joc Pederson’s hustle double, followed by Wyatt Langford’s single and a Ezequiel Duran sac fly, got the Rangers on the board in the first.
- The two runs they scored off of Gilbert in the fourth, giving Texas a 3-1 lead, were of the good fortune variety.
- Brandon Nimmo reached on an infield single that caromed off of Gilbert, and which Gilbert made a poor throw to first to try to get him. A Jake Burger walk and an Evan Carter single were followed by a Nicky Lopez grounder that I thought was going to potentially be a double play, but which was generously scored a single when an attempted throw to second went high.
- I’ve now listed five of the six hits the Rangers had on the day. The sixth was an Ezequiel Duran home run in the eighth to make the game closer.
- You aren’t going to win a whole ton of games when you have just six hits.
- Still, it looked like the Rangers might steal this one. When deGrom allowed two singles to start the sixth, and was pulled for Robby Ahlstrom, the first batter Ahlstrom faced, Josh Naylor, smoked a line drive right at Lopez at second base. A run scoring hit was instead an out, Ahlstrom retired the next two batters, and you thought, the Rangers are going to pull this one out.
- But no. The bullpen couldn’t get it done. A pair of hits off of Tyler Alexander resulted in Skip Schumaker going to get Cole Winn with two on and one out in the seventh.
- I thought Jakob Junis would get the nod in that situation, but I suppose he was being saved for the eighth inning.
- As it turned out, Junis wasn’t used at all, as Winn, after getting Julio Rodriguez to pop out, gave up a two run, two out blast to Dominic Canzone.
- It was momentum shifting.
- Randy Arozarena added another homer to pad the lead, which was unfortunate. Ezequiel Duran homered to bring them back within one, only to see that run given back by Peyton Gray in the top of the ninth.
- The bullpen is a problem.
- But you probably already knew that.
- Jacob deGrom hit 99.2 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.3 mph. Robby Ahlstrom touched 97.2 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball topped out at 93.1 mph. Cole Winn reached 95.1 mph with his fastball. Ben Peoples maxed out at 97.1 mph with his fastball. Peyton Gray’s fastball reached 93.4 mph.
- Joc Pederson had a 106.9 mph double. Ezequiel Duran had a 106.3 mph home run.
- The rare Monday day game for the finale. Let’s win the series, okay?
