Dietrich's HR seals Texas' 7th win in 8 games

Derek Dietrich is a veteran utility player trying to secure an important role with the Rangers. Right-hander Jonathan Hernández is a rookie reliever who has claimed his own meaningful spot in their bullpen.

Those two delivered in the biggest moments of Saturday night's game as the Rangers, in danger of letting one get away, held on for a 6-4 victory over the Rockies at Coors Field.

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With the Rangers ahead, 3-2, Hernández came on for starter Kyle Gibson with two runners on and one out in the bottom of the seventh and got Trevor Story to ground into an inning-ending double play. Then, Dietrich broke it open for Texas with a three-run home run in the eighth off reliever Carlos Estévez.

The Rangers had 13 hits, but they were 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position before Dietrich belted a first-pitch 98 mph fastball over the left-field wall. Dietrich, who was playing in his third game with Texas, was 0-for-2 with runners in scoring position before hitting his first home run since July 13, 2019, when he was with the Reds (which was also a three-run homer at Coors Field).

“I had a little bit of that on my shoulders,” Dietrich said. “In this ballpark, no lead is safe. We know that. You've got to keep adding on, and that’s what we said the last few innings, 'Let’s add on, every run is important.' You’ve got to keep battling to put runs up here. It was big to get those extra runs.”

With back-to-back wins over Colorado, Texas has now won seven of its last eight. The Rangers are 10-9, a half-game ahead of the Astros for second place in the American League West.

“You never want to put so much stress on your team that you have to win games like that, but overall, offensively, I like what I saw,” manager Chris Woodward said. “There was a lot of hitting behind runners, finding holes, grinding out at-bats, getting leadoff hitters on. I love how we are attacking pitchers and putting pressure on them.”

Texas put pressure on Colorado starter Germán Márquez for six innings. The Rangers were 9-for-24 against him with two walks and a hit-by-pitch. However, not only were they 2-for-13 against him with runners in scoring position, but they also had four chances to score a runner from third base with one out and succeeded only once, on a throwing error in the fifth.

Gibson, who made his first career start at Coors Field, still took a 3-2 lead into the seventh before giving up one-out singles to Tony Wolters and Garrett Hampson. That’s when Woodward called on Hernández. Story, who had two doubles and a triple off Gibson, hit the second sinker he saw on the ground at shortstop Elvis Andrus for a double play.

“First of all, I thought Gibby did a great job tonight,” Woodward said. “If it were anybody but Trevor Story coming up in that situation, I probably would have left him in there to face him. Jonathan was a good matchup. I knew we could get a ground ball. I didn’t think we would get a double play as well as Trevor runs, but it was pretty phenomenal we had a chance to turn it.”

Gibson notched his first win with the Rangers, as their starters improved to 5-6 with a 3.40 ERA through 19 games. Opposing hitters are batting .202 against them.

“Starting pitching can bring consistency day to day,” Gibson said. “But offense brings confidence. As you’ve seen, some knocks fall in and those guys grow more confident because we’re scoring runs, then we can get on a roll like this. Whenever you get all aspects rolling, you really start clicking, but the day-to-day confidence comes from scoring runs, and they’ve done a good job.”