What is the story about?
Rangers
6, Blue Jays 2
- Ladies and gentlemen, the Texas Rangers are in sole possession of first place in the American League West, a full game up on the Houston Astros.
- Let’s take a moment to enjoy this.
- * deep breath * ah, the smell of that first place air!
- And the Rangers won this game in spite of starter Cal Quantrill leaving with lat tightness after retiring just four batters.
- Quantrill, I will note, clearly wasn’t right from the outset, with his velocity down a couple of ticks in the first inning. He threw just one pitch in the second, a fastball that was just 87.8 mph — a full six mph off his 93.8 mph season average — and that was enough for Skip Schumaker to go get him.
- We felt the bullpen was in great shape after Trevor Williams threw four innings to finish out Friday’s game. Turned out, it needed to be.
- Jordan Montgomery — remember him? I forget sometimes that he’s in the bullpen for the Rangers.
- Montgomery, who threw an inning just two days prior, gave the Rangers 51 pitches and 3.2 innings, with the only baserunner he allowed being a walk in the fourth.
- Since Quantrill retired all four batters he faced, the Rangers took a no-hitter into the sixth inning.
- A sixth inning handled by Nathan Eovaldi, of all people.
- The booth speculated that Saturday would have been Eovaldi’s throw day if he were going to start on Tuesday, so with the uncertainty surrounding Quantrill, they held off on having Eovaldi throw, in case they basically needed him to do his “throw day” as a relief appearance.
- 22 pitches later, Eovaldi handled the sixth inning, allowing the first two Jays hits of the game as well as the first Toronto run, but finishing the inning with the Rangers still ahead, 3-1.
- After the Rangers answered with three runs, Robert Garcia came in to handle the seventh, allowed a solo homer to pinch hitter Davis Schneider and an infield single to Kaz Okamoto, but a double play and a 3U meant no more runs scored.
- Chase Silseth and Jacob Latz pitched the eighth and ninth with no runs coming across, and Latz only needed 9 pitches, meaning he should be available for Sunday if needed.
- It was a weird one for the bats. They only had five hits in the game, and were just 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position. Not the sort of output that would have you thinking six runs.
- Josh Jung had a first inning opposite-field solo homer for the second time in three games to put the Rangers up early.
- Texas was then the beneficiary of some clownball in the second, scoring two runs on zero hits.
- Wyatt Langford led off with a walk, then Nicky Lopez, with one out, was hit by a pitch. Danny Jansen grounded to short for what looked like an inning-ending 6-4-3, but the throw to second was bad, allowing Langford to score and Lopez to get to third. Lopez then scored on an 0-2 wild pitch to Evan Carter.
- The three runs in the sixth, in response to the first Jays run of the game in the top of the inning, also was assisted by the Blue Jays. A Josh Jung hit by pitch, a Brandon Nimmo single and a Wyatt Langford double brought a run in and put runners on second and third with no one out. After Jake Burger struck out, the Jays intentionally walked Nicky Lopez.
- Yes, you read that right…Nicky Lopez was intentionally walked to load the bases.
- Nicky Lopez.
- It was the first time in Nicky Lopez’s career that he was issued an intentional walk.
- I really don’t like issuing an intentional walk to load the bases, because it means there’s no margin for error for the pitcher.
- Which was promptly demonstrated, as our old friend from the 2023 World Series, Paul Sewald, hit Danny Jansen with the very next pitch he threw, forcing in a run.
- Evan Carter followed with a shallow sac fly to center, which featured Langford having to leap over Alejandro Kirk, who was in front of the plate, unsuccessfully trying to catch the throw home from Brett Bateman. Langford didn’t tag the plate, but was alert enough to go and touch home before Sewald, backing up the play, could tag him.
- Meanwhile, 260 miles away, the Astros lost to the Atlanta Braves, putting the Rangers’ playoff fate in the Rangers’ hands.
- Seven games to go, and the Rangers are still in it. Exciting, isn’t it?
- Paul Quantrill hit 93.2 mph with his fastball, averaging 91.7 mph. Jordan Montgomery’s fastball hit 91.9 mph. Nathan Eovaldi touched 94.1 mph with his fastball. Robert Garcia’s fastball topped out at 93.7 mph. Chase Silseth hit 97. 0 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz’s fastball reached 96.8 mph.
- Jake Burger had a 105.4 mph fly out. Corey Seager had a 104.0 mph groundout and a 103.4 mph single. Wyatt Langford had a 102.8 mph double. Josh Jung had a 100.2 mph home run.
- Let’s finish off the sweep today. The Rangers haven’t swept a team since…they swept Toronto in Toronto at the end of June? Really? Its been that long?
