The Texas Rangers scored three runs while the Cleveland Guardians scored two runs.
The Rangers had us in the first half, not gonna lie.
In what was shaping up to be a familiar game that you’ve seen a dozen times at The Shed this year, the Rangers found the switch to flip and came through with a crooked number inning that just happened to be the exact digit that was as many as they needed to find the win column tonight in the series opener against Cleveland.
After a day off yesterday, Texas returned
home and greeted us like an old friend as the Guardians took a 1-0 lead three pitches into the game when former No. 1 overall pick Travis Bazzana took former two-time first round pick and 2022 No. 3 overall selection Kumar Rocker deep.
With the first inning blues playing once more, Texas was in a hole before they’d even stepped up to the plate. That started to seem like the least of their problems as they came to bat in the fourth inning without a hit. By that point, it was 2-0 Guardians when World Series-winning legend Austin Hedges singled in Steven Kwan with two outs in the top of the fourth.
Cleveland reached to lead off an inning in four of the first five frames but Rocker prevented the big inning throughout his start. One of the key moments in the game came with the Guardians already up 2-0 when Bazzana tripled to lead off the fifth. Rocker buckled down and prevented Bazzana from scoring to keep it close.
Overall Rocker went five innings on 94 pitches where he allowed two runs on six hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
Meanwhile, Cleveland starter Parker Messick would make it to two outs in the bottom of the fourth before Josh Jung singled for Texas’ first hit of the night. The Rangers would be held off the board until a few innings later when catcher Kyle Higashioka smacked a solo home run to give Texas some hope as the Cleveland lead was halved.
With the looming threat of a shutout off the table, returning lineup reinforcement Wyatt Langford doubled to put the tying run in scoring position. Also returning was Corey Seager and he followed Langford not just with an RBI hit to tie the game but with a tw0-run dong that suddenly gave the Rangers a lead as the game exited the middle innings.
Despite the fact that the Rangers snoozed through the first half of the game, they held the lead and turned things over to their bullpen. A combination of Peyton Gray, Jalen Beeks, and Jacob Latz tossed the final four innings with Latz collecting a six-out save that proved a bit laborious.
The trio of relievers struck out six and held Cleveland to just a ninth inning Hedges single that had us sweating a little before Latz finished off the comeback victory on his 35th pitch of the night.
Player of the Game: Seager had been chained to the longest, most dreadful slump of his big league career before hitting the IL with back issues. After missing over half of May, Seager returned and immediately made an impact with his go-ahead and eventual game-winning two-run home run that put Texas up by the eventual 3-2 final score.
Welcome back, Corey!
Up Next: The Rangers and Guardians hit the national airwaves with RHP Jack Leiter expected to pitch for Texas opposite RHP Tanner Bibee for Cleveland.
The Saturday evening first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 6:35 pm CDT and you can watch the game on FOX.
