What is the story about?
Rangers
8, A’s 5
- That’s three in a row!
- And also three straight games of the Rangers scoring a lot of runs.
- MacKenzie Gore wasn’t exactly dominating — he allowed five hits and four walks in his 5.1 innings — but managed to largely keep the A’s off the board, giving up just one run.
- He had his one scuffling inning, in the third, but fortunately he retired the first two batters of the inning before getting into trouble. Three straight hard hit singles followed by a walk brought home a run and had the bases loaded before Jeff McNeil skied a first pitch slider for an easy third out.
- Things were fine for Gore otherwise until two walks to the first three batters in the sixth got him the hook. Chase Silseth finished out the inning, and after the Rangers tacked on some runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it 8-1, it seemed like Skip Schumaker was safe using some of the non-leverage arms to finish out the game.
- But, no, things couldn’t be that easy.
- Adam Macko, the Rangers’ big deadline day acquisition, went walk-K-single-single-HBP to start the seventh, loading the bases with one out and a run in, before getting a Max Muncy GIDP ball to get out of the inning.
- Trevor Williams, signed after the Nationals had released him, loaded the bases with one out in the eighth but managed to limit the A’s to just one run. Asked to handled the ninth inning as well, Williams allowed a two run homer and then, when one out, hit a batter, resulting in Jacob Latz being summoned to get the final two outs.
- Latz struck out the two batters he faced, so everything worked out, and Latz got his 28th save of the season, and got a little bit of work, making just his second appearance in the last nine days.
- But yeah…the bullpen, beyond the top few guys, continues to be a source of concern.
- Of consternation, even.
- But it was fine, the Rangers scored a bunch of runs in the game so they had a big cushion.
- Corey Seager and Brandon Nimmo were doing it all themselves early on. The first two runs of the game were scored by Seager being driven home by Nimmo. The third and fourth runs of the game were scored by Joc Pederson and Seager, driven home by Nimmo.
- Two doubles, a walk and a sac fly by Seager constitute a pretty good game, I think. Nimmo going 4 for 5 with five RBIs? Also pretty good.
- MacKenzie Gore hit 96.2 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.5 mph. Chase Silseth touched 95.9 mph with his fastball. Adam Macko’s fastball reached 95.2 mph. Trevor Williams topped out at 90.2 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz maxed out at 95.3 mph with his fastball.
- Jake Burger had a 110.7 mph fly out. Brandon Nimmo had a 110.6 mph single. Corey Seager had a 108.5 mph double and a 108.2 mph double. Elias Diaz had a 107.1 mph double. Logan O’Hoppe had a 101.6 mph sac fly. Joc Pederson had a 100.5 mph single.
- Now to go for the sweep, and to get back to .500.
