What is the story about?
Rangers
5, Tigers 4
- Back to .500, guys.
- Not a great start from MacKenzie Gore.
- Gore had some issues throwing strikes and struggled to put batters away. Gore generated just six swinging strikes in his outing out of 94 pitches. And despite throwing 94 pitches, he only faced 18 batters and registered 11 outs.
- Gore needed a whopping 49 pitches to get through the first two innings, despite facing just eight batters. After a quick 1-2-3 third inning, he couldn’t get out of the fourth. With two on and two out in the inning, he walked Spencer Torkelson, then gave up singles to Wenceel Perez and Hao-Yu Lee, getting chased from the game with three runs in and two runners on base.
- Go ahead, Mr. Wenceel.
- Cole Winn got out of the inning with a strikeout, but was pulled with one out in the fourth after a walk, a wild pitch and a single. Jalen Beeks got a grounder from Riley Greene, but the Rangers weren’t able to turn two, such that Texas, which had been up 4-0 just an inning and a half ago, was suddenly faced with a 4-4 tie.
- Beeks, by the way, got dinged with a blown save for allowing an inherited run to score in the fifth inning on a ground out. That doesn’t seem fair.
- In any case, it seemed like doom awaited.
- DOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
- Doom didn’t await, though. At least not for the Rangers.
- The collection of no-names in the Rangers pen once again banded together to keep their opponents off the scoreboard the rest of the way.
- Well, they do have names. Along with Beeks, there was Tyler Alexander, Jakob Junis, and Jacob Latz.
- Beeks, Alexander, Junis and Latz are all sporting sub-2 ERAs on the year. Gavin Collyer and Peyton Gray have yet to allow a run. The only active members of the Rangers bullpen with an ERA over 2 are Winn (5.27) and Cal Quantrill (6.43).
- The Rangers’ offense, once again able to do some damage now that they are away from the Shed, got up early with a Brandon Nimmo leadoff single and a Josh Jung two out RBI single. They seemed poised to chase Tigers starter Jack Flaherty in the third, when a Danny Jansen homer was followed by three straight walks and another Josh Jung RBI single.
- They scored a third run in the inning on a Joc Pederson sac fly, but Jake Burger popped up for the second out. Alejandro Osuna then battled Flaherty for ten pitches, but ended up fanning to end the inning.
- Still, Osuna ended up coming through with the winning hit later in the game, doubling to left field with Jake Burger on second in the eighth, giving the Rangers the ultimate winning margin in the game.
- Brandon Nimmo left the game with hamstring soreness for the second game in a row, which is not ideal. It did, however, result in Ezequiel Duran moving from second base to right field, which set up this great play in the seventh:
- MacKenzie Gore hit 96.9 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.6 mph. Cole Winn hit 95.9 mph with his fastball. Jalen Beeks’ fastball touched 93.6 mph. Tyler Alexander’s sinker topped out at 91.3 mph. Jakob Junis reached 92.2 mph with his sinker. Jacob Latz maxed out at 96.0 mph with his fastball.
- Jake Burger had a 108.4 mph double. Josh Jung had a 106.9 mph ground out. Ezequiel Duran had a 105.9 mph ground out. Corey Seager had a 105.5 mph double. Brandon Nimmo had a 103.2 mph single and a 101.6 mph single. Danny Jansen had a 102.7 mph home run and a 101.6 mph fly out.
- The road trip has started on a positive note.
