Rangers
7, D-Backs 5
- Well that was exhilarating.
- It didn’t start off that way, of course. Patrick Corbin gave up homers to the first two batters he faced, then allowed another homer in the second inning, putting the Rangers in a 3-0 hole early on.
- Corbin has struggled since the beginning of August, his eight inning, no run outing in his previous start not withstanding, and is currently sporting a 4.48 ERA and an 83 ERA+, resulting in a -0.4 bWAR. His fWAR is much better, at 1.3, despite his FIP of 4.47 being almost identical to his ERA, a byproduct of the split between Fangraphs’ park factors for the Shed and B-R’s.
- Corbin, incidentally, has a 3.20 ERA in 12 home starts and a 5.63 ERA in 14 road starts.
- Corbin got chased in the sixth inning, allowing a one out single and a two out triple right after the Rangers had tied it up in the top of the sixth, and when Jacob Webb allowed a double, that put a fifth run on Corbin’s ledger.
- And I mean look, we weren’t expecting a win in this game to start with. The Rangers were underdogs, Corbin was on the mound, the team didn’t even get into Arizona until late Monday morning due to mechanical issues with their plane Sunday evening. And that’s before even getting into the whole situation with the lineup, and the collection of randos the Rangers are having to roll with currently.
- So yeah, the Rangers being down 5-3 after six, even against a flawed D-Backs bullpen, it looked like a loss was heading this way.
- Texas had put its runs on the board courtesy of a two run Cody Freeman homer and a solo Wyatt Langford shot, but had done little to threaten otherwise, and nine batters in a row had been retired when the ninth inning started.
- A Dylan Moore pinch hit single was followed by an Adolis Garcia fielder’s choice where Adolis tweaked his quad, though stayed in the game, and managed to hobble home on Jake Burger’s triple to make it 5-4. After a Josh Jung K and a Kyle Higashioka walk, Cody Freeman singled Burger home to tie the game up.
- Burger had just been activated from the injured list on Monday, as had Chris Martin, who threw a scoreless ninth to send the game to extras. With runners on second and third and two outs, Alejandro Osuna, who entered the game for Garcia, smashed a line drive back up the middle that hit D-Backs reliever Juan Burgos, caromed into foul ground, and ended up being a two RBI single after the Rangers challenged the out call on Ezequiel Duran at home.
- It set the stage for Shawn Armstrong to thrown a 1-2-3 bottom of the inning and pick up the save, extending the Rangers’ winning streak to six games.
- Its baffling, this team succeeding behind a big offensive performance by Cody Freeman and key hits by Dylan Moore and Alejandro Osuna, after struggling so much offensively all season.
- Texas is now 1.5 games back of Seattle for the third Wild Card spot, and four and a half games back of Houston in the A.L. West.
- Patrick Corbin topped out at 94.0 mph with his sinker, averaging 93.1 mph. Jacob Webb hit 94.8 mph with his fastball. Chris Martin’s fastball touched 95.1 mph. Shawn Armstrong hit 94.7 mph with his fastball.
- Wyatt Langford had a 112.2 mph home run and a 101.3 mph fly out. Jake Burger had a 109.0 mph triple. Alejandro Osuna had a 108.6 mph single. Dylan Moore had a 104.3 mph single. Cody Freeman had a 102.0 mph ground out. Michael Helman had a 100.0 mph ground out.
- This weird-ass team continues to surprise.
