The Texas Rangers scored five runs while the Milwaukee Brewers scored zero runs.
Not to disparage the boys but the lineup at the moment certainly strikes fear in the hearts of no one. Even with most of their best players toiling away for most of the season, Texas was (actually, fairly remarkably) 20th in baseball in runs scored coming into tonight with 614 runs on the year. No Ranger in Bruce Bochy’s lineup entered tonight’s game with an average north of .250 nor an OPS higher than Wyatt Langford’s
.782, where he sat as the 67th highest in baseball.
But now all of the star power on the roster is sitting on the bench cheering on this group wrapped up in gauze. In their stead, we’ve got the likes of Cody Freeman manning the No. 2 hole with 60 career at-bats. Dylan Moore is hitting fifth despite joining the club off the scrap heap like a week ago.
Some guy named Michael Helman (more on him in a moment) is getting regular playing time this month despite playing in a total of 30 career big league games, nine of which came via a cup of coffee with the Minnesota Twins last September.
As we entered the fifth inning tonight, the Rangers hadn’t even gotten a runner on base against Milwaukee starter Jose Quintana. No real surprise or anything. So it was pretty funny when Jake Burger broke up the perfecto with a leadoff walk. An out later, it was even more amusing when Kyle Higashioka was an inch away from a two-run home run that was instead a one-out double.
Following a Jonah Heim walk to load the bases came Helman. The Rangers have been atrocious all season with the bases loaded. They had not hit a grand slam all year. Doing so was likely the furthest thing from anyone’s mind as just capitalizing on the rally would have more than sufficed for a club that has struggled with delivering on their chances.
Well…
Not only did Helman hit a grand slam, he followed it up with an RBI double in the seventh to plate his and Texas’ fifth run. Helman now exits this game with an OPS of .886.
It’s so stupid. It’s so funny.
Player of the Game: It’s obviously Helman but I’m going to take a moment to shout out Jacob Latz for stepping in and stepping up in Nathan Eovaldi’s spot in the rotation once again.
Tonight Latz, now almost fully stretched out as a starter, tossed 5.2 innings of scoreless ball against the league’s top team and an offense that is tops in the National League in runs scored, a Brewers squad that came into tonight having scored 122 more runs than Texas this season.
Latz allowed just three hits and a walk while striking out four as he picked up a massive win.
Up Next: The Rangers and Brewers continue this series with RHP Jack Leiter next up to pitch for Texas against a pitcher to be named for Milwaukee.
The Tuesday evening first pitch from The Shed is scheduled for 7:05 pm CT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.
