Jung, Anderson bright spots as Heaney struggles

WASHINGTON -- Rangers lefty Andrew Heaney could not cap off a memorable week with a memorable start. Making his first outing since his wife, Jordan, delivered the couple’s first children -- twin girls born on Monday -- Heaney struggled in Texas’ 8-3 loss to Washington on Saturday afternoon at Nationals Park.

“It was an off day for him, that was obvious,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “I know he had a busy week, but he just couldn’t get going.”

Heaney allowed back-to-back singles to CJ Abrams and Lane Thomas to begin the outing, before Jeimer Candelario crushed an 84.7 mph changeup to deep center for a three-run homer. One batter later, Joey Meneses sent a 2-0 offering over the left-field fence to give the Nats a 4-0 lead. It all came before Heaney and the Rangers had managed to record an out.

“It just wasn’t good,” said Heaney, who was placed on the paternity list earlier in the week and was not with the team for its series in Boston. Heaney met the Rangers in Washington on Friday, though he prepared for this start as he normally would in Arlington, playing catch and throwing a bullpen session at Globe Life Field.

“A crazy week,” as he described it, wasn’t an excuse for the poor start, he said.

“My offspeed stuff wasn’t good,” he said. “In fastball counts, I gave too much plate, I wasn’t putting guys away. Not a whole lot [of] good.”

The conditions were hardly optimal for Heaney, a fly-ball pitcher, on a humid and muggy late afternoon in D.C. After a leadoff walk to Luis García in the second, Alex Call hit a two-run blast that just eluded Leody Tavares’ outstretched glove over the center-field wall.

A 77-minute rain delay before the fourth inning ultimately cut Heaney’s day short, but the damage was done. Heaney tossed three innings, allowing eight hits and eight runs (seven earned), including three homers, tied for his season worst. This marked the seventh consecutive start in which Heaney could not complete six innings.

Despite the early deficit, a number of Rangers at least made a comeback bid plausible coming out of the rain delay. Two batters after play resumed in the fourth, Josh Jung slugged a two-run homer off Nationals starter Jake Irvin. Jung also hit a solo shot in the sixth, sending the first pitch from reliever Jordan Weems deep to left. Jung’s fourth career multihomer game put him atop the rookie leaderboard with 19 home runs on the season.

Jung’s 19 homers are second-most by a Texas rookie before the All-Star break (Adolis García, 22 in 2021).

“It’s more of the same that we’ve seen from him all year,” Bochy said of the American League’s starting third baseman at Tuesday’s All-Star Game. “We scratched and clawed, but he certainly did everything he could to help us come back.”

Jung also impressed defensively. In the bottom of the fifth, he backhanded a sharp grounder from Stone Garrett down the third-base line before throwing him out from foul territory. Although Garrett was originally ruled safe, the call was overturned after video review.

“That was a big-time play,” said reliever Grant Anderson, who played his own role in giving the Rangers a chance to potentially claw their way back.

Anderson tossed four scoreless innings in relief, limiting Washington to three hits with three strikeouts and no walks.

“I knew what the team needed today,” Anderson said. “Obviously with the rain delay, Heaney couldn’t go back out. We were facing a big deficit, and I just tried to go out there and make pitches.”

Anderson ended his outing on a high note, needing just six pitches to navigate through the seventh inning.

“He really saved us,” Bochy said. “Pitched very well. Good velocity, good breaking ball going. He got the ball down better today, had good sink on it -- so a good outing for him. He should feel good about that. It looks like he’s on track.”

Anderson’s workload not only helped preserve the Rangers’ bullpen for Sunday’s series finale, but also established a new benchmark for the 26-year-old rookie right-hander.

Asked when he last pitched four innings, Anderson didn’t hesitate.

“My junior year of college,” the McNeese State alum said. “It was actually the last game I played. We lost in the conference tournament. I threw seven innings. But that was a long time ago.”