The Texas Rangers scored four runs while the San Diego Padres scored three runs.
It feels mildly inappropriate to beat the Padres on Father’s Day but the Rangers were perhaps finished with niceties after securing a losing homestand with an extra innings defeat yesterday.
Today, after being pushed back a day with a bit of the old man knee, Nathan Eovaldi didn’t allow a first inning home run nor even a first inning run. In fact, Eovaldi was cruising along until a peculiar bump in the road in the top
of the fourth when he allowed six of the seven hits that he’d allow today.
Those six hits amounted to three runs for the Padres but when they scored those runs, the Rangers were already leading 3-0 after Wyatt Langford had connected for a three-run dong a half inning prior, his third home run in the last four games of this homestand.
With the game tied 3-3, the Rangers reclaimed the lead in the following half inning after San Diego’s outburst when Josh Jung singled in a run in the bottom of the fourth.
From there it was nothing but zeroes from both clubs. Eovaldi rediscovered his swing-and-miss pitches and tossed a couple more scoreless innings to finish the day allowing three runs over six innings with just one walk and nine strikeouts. Other than the fourth inning, he allowed just one hit. I guess hitting actually is contagious sometimes.
Though the Rangers could never muster an insurance run, the bullpen was up to the task of hanging on today where it was not yesterday. A trio of Peyton Gray, Robby Ahlstrom, and Jakob Junis combined for three shutout innings with Junis making us sweat out a save with Jacob Latz unavailable today.
It certainly wasn’t an overall successful homestand and the Rangers now face their longest remaining road trip of the season without a breather, but maybe give your dad a call and talk to him about how Langford is getting hot and Eovaldi looked fine after being skipped for a day, eh?
Player of the Game: Langford — who had a couple of hits, including the three-run home run — perhaps loves his father the most.
Up Next: The Rangers head out on the road for the remainder of June beginning with a series against Skip Schumaker’s former team, the National League’s Marlins. RHP Kumar Rocker is expected to make the start for Texas in the opener opposite RHP Tyler Phillips for Miami.
The Monday evening first pitch from loanDepot park is scheduled for 5:40 pm CDT and will be available to watch via the Rangers Sports Network.
