What is the story about?
Rangers
5, Rockies 4
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH, COLORADO!
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH, COLORADO!
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!
- The Rangers won.
- They shot the bb gun.
- This is now two straight Wednesdays where the Rangers won due to a ninth inning comeback.
- And this game didn’t even involved blowing a lead in the ninth inning first.
- It did involve things going south for Jack Leiter relatively quickly in the middle innings.
- But let’s focus on the positive aspect of things. The good things. Like Leiter’s first three innings, where he did give up a run in the first on a single, a stolen base and another single, but retired the other nine batters he faced, and struck out the side in the second.
- Let’s not talk about the fourth inning, where, having just been given a 3-1 lead, he walked two consecutive batters with two outs, the second of which coming on a 3-2 pitch which was initially called a strike and then was overturned on an ABS challenge.
- It seemed like there was a fair amount of ABS activity in the game. I could be wrong. It also felt like the strike zone wasn’t super well called. I could be wrong there, too, though.
- Sometimes we are wrong about things. And that is, okay.
- Two more runs scored in the fifth, but it could have been worse, as a 3-2 pitch to Mickey Moniak with no outs and a runner on third was initially called a ball, but was overturned on an ABS challenge and was called a strike. Basically the reverse of the bases loaded walk in the previous inning, except the bases weren’t loaded and there weren’t two outs.
- But let’s move on.
- Jakob Junis, Tyler Alexander and Jacob Latz each pitched a scoreless inning to get things to the ninth with the Rangers still down one.
- It was a vexing down one because the Rangers had lots of opportunities, but were unable to convert.
- Like in the fifth. The Rangers got back to back singles with two outs — the second by Brandon Nimmo, who was then lifted for pinch runner Alejandro Osuna due to a hamstring issue. As it has been all series, it was chilly and rainy, and not ideal weather for one with a muscle tweak.
- A Josh Jung walk loaded the bases, but the bases were left stranded when Ezequiel Duran grounded out to end the inning.
- No complaints about Duran, though, as he had a two run homer in that three run third inning to give the Rangers the lead. It was followed up by a Jake Burger homer. Burger, you might have noticed, is hitting kinda good lately.
- (Spoiler alert — be sure to check him out in the exit velocity data towards the end of the post.)
- In the sixth, the seventh and the eighth, the Rangers had a single in each inning, but nothing more.
- Ninth inning rolls around, the Rockies have a lefty reliever on the mound, Danny Jansen pinch hits for Evan Carter and strikes out. The Rangers are now out of position players, and Joc Pederson is going to have to go from DH to the outfield to replace Carter if the Rangers tie the game or take the lead, which is looking unlikely at this point.
- Pederson gets the rally started with a catcher’s interference, and really, isn’t that the best kind of way to get a rally started?
- Justin Foscue had a hard hit single the other way, putting runners at first and second. Alejandro Osuna then reached on a not terribly hard hit chopper the other way that Ezequiel Tovar fielded but had to stick in his pocket, loading the bases.
- Joc Pederson, who reached on catcher’s interference, then scored on a passed ball. Not a great inning for Rockies catcher Brett Sullivan.
- Josh Jung then hit a grounder that snuck past the pulled in infield to give the Rangers the lead.
- Osuna’s infield single had an xBA of .140. Jung’s go-ahead single had an xBA of .220. Sometimes its better to be lucky than good.
- On the other hand, the Rangers had an xBA for the game of .313, while the Rockies had a .200 xBA, so the Rangers were actually good, and lucky, or maybe not that lucky. I’m not sure.
- I think I confused myself.
- This puts the Rangers at .500 on the road trip, and while they played two bad teams, its hard to say that going 3-3 on the road is not okay. Two of the wins were blowouts where the Rangers shut out the opposition, and one was this come-from-behind one run win. Two of the losses were close games where the offense took a powder, and one loss was a one run loss where weird bad things happened.
- Texas is back to one game below .500. That’s still the wrong side of .500, but its better than being several games below .500. They will either be tied for the lead in the American League West or a game back, depending on what happens in the A’s/Angels game on the West Coast.
- I would like to see this team get on a hot streak and rattle off a bunch of wins. The two weeks after this road trip, featuring four at home against Houston, three at home against Kansas City, three in St. Louis, then three back home against Cleveland would be a great time to do so.
- But as of right now, they are hanging in there despite a very tough early schedule. They are currently, in fact, occupying the WC3 spot.
- Things are trending the right direction.
- Jack Leiter reached 97.4 mph on his fastball, averaging 95.4 mph. Jakob Junis hit 91.9 mph on his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball touched 91.4 mph. Jacob Latz’s fastball maxed out at 96.6 mph.
- Jake Burger had a 110.9 mph single, a 110.4 mph ground out, a 108.4 mph home run, and a 106.1 mph GIDP. Evan Carter had a 106.5 mph ground out. Ezequiel Duran had a 106.2 mph home run. Josh Jung had a 102.8 mph ground out. Justin Foscue had a 100.7 mph single.
- Let’s luxuriate in a win in a day game before an off day.
