What is the story about?
Rangers
8, Rays 6
- That was a rather impressive little come-from-behind victory, no?
- It feels weird to call it a come-from-behind victory when the Rangers were only behind for the first few innings, though.
- It seems like when you talk about a come-from-behind victory, you’re talking about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat late in the game. Not putting up a 4 spot in the fourth to draw even, and then taking the lead for good the next inning.
- It was one of MacKenzie Gore’s less inspiring outings, as he was unable to either dominate or fool the Rays hitters.
- 68 pitches for Gore, in three innings plus a couple of batters. The Rays swung 33 times, and made contact 29 times. Just four swings and misses out of 33 swings is pretty poor.
- And Gore only had 7 called strikes, as well. It wasn’t a matter of the Rays being patient and taking a lot of strikes.
- Whereas in his starts Gore has had issues putting batters away, racking up a high number of pitches per plate appearance, Gore faced 20 batters on Sunday.
- Again, facing 20 batters while recording just 9 outs is pretty poor.
- In fairness, while 11 batters reached safely against Gore, one of those was due to a Cody Freeman error, and another was the result of an intentional walk. Take those out and he retired half of the other eighteen batters he faced.
- Yeah, that doesn’t make it sound much better.
- The MacKenzie Gore inning was the second, when he faced ten batters and allowed four runs, giving up five singles, the intentional walk, and the unintentional walk.
- We should be relieved he left the bases loaded, I guess, and kept the Rays from piling on more runs that inning.
- One can note that Gore gave up several not-terribly-well-hit hits that inning, including a bunt single that scored a run, if one is feeling generous.
- Gore got chased in favor of Trevor Williams after allowing a single and a double to start the fourth. One would say that Skip Schumaker was treating it as a must-win game, going and getting Gore that early, but then, one wouldn’t normally use Trevor Williams for the second day in a row in a must win game.
- Williams gave up a sac fly for the final run on Gore’s ledger, but the six innings the Ranger pen had to handle generally went pretty well. Tyler Alexander gave up a run in the seventh, but the Rangers had a two run lead at that point, so it was less upsetting than it would otherwise have been.
- Schumaker also used Jacob Latz and Jakob Junis in reverse order, with Latz, who picked up the loss the night before while throwing 22 pitches, going into the game to face the top of the order in the eighth, and then Junis pitching the ninth after a Corey Seager home run extended the Ranger lead to two.
- Apparently Schumaker was going to use Latz for the ninth when it was just a one run lead, but once Seager made it a two run game, he decided on Junis.
- Impressive work from the bats. 12 Rangers hits and 5 walks. That’s a lot of baserunners.
- Jake Burger was responsible for the first three Rangers runs, with a solo homer in second and a two run homer in the fourth.
- That second homer made it a 5-3 game, and turned a game that felt like it was basically over already into a game where the Rangers maybe had a chance.
- Corey Seager reaching on a two out E6 with two on extended the inning, setting the stage for a Justin Foscue double to tie the game. The following inning, an Elias Diaz drove home Jake Burger with the go-ahead run, and Ezequiel Duran had a two out single to give the Rangers an insurance run.
- It was a 3 for 5 game for Duran, if you’re keeping track at home, which I’m sure you are. He’s now slashing .277/.337/.457 on the year.
- The Rangers also had four different DHs in the game, which is kind of fun. Logan O’Hoppe started the game at DH, then Joc Pederson pinch hit for him, then Cam Cauley pinch ran for Pederson after he walked, then Danny Jansen pinch hit for Cauley with two on and two out in the eighth.
- So the Rangers are two games below .500 heading out to Seattle. They play three games there, and could get buried and more or less knocked out of the playoff race with a bad series in the Pacific Northwest, or they could do well and continue to hang in there.
- Baseball Fever. Catch it.
- MacKenzie Gore hit 96.5 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.5 mph. Trevor Williams reached 90.6 mph with his fastball. Chase Silseth touched 96.1 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball maxed out at 92.5 mph. Jacob Latz’s fastball touched 96.3 mph. Jakob Junis topped out at 92.2 mph with his fastball.
- Ezequiel Duran had a 108.6 mph single and a 100.2 mph single. Jake Burger had a 105.7 mph home run and a 103.9 mph home run. Logan O’Hoppe had a 105.2 mph single. Brandon Nimmo had a 104.9 mph groundout and a 102.4 mph groundout. Elias Diaz had a 102.1 mph single. Corey Seager had a 101.7 mph home run.
- Now an off day. Just 18 games left for the Rangers. In the regular season, anyway.
