Full-strength Rangers snap skid with win over Boston
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ARLINGTON -- The Rangers sent six players to Seattle for the 2023 MLB All-Star Game.
Since the All-Star break, five of those players have spent some amount of time on the injured list: Corey Seager, Adolis García, Josh Jung, Jonah Heim and Nathan Eovaldi. Marcus Semien, the lone All-Star to not land on the IL, has played every game this season.
For the first time in what has felt like forever, the Rangers are a healthy team. Or as healthy as a Major League Baseball team can be in mid-September. It showed in the second game of the final homestand of the season.
In what ended up being a back-and-forth affair at Globe Life Field on Tuesday night, four of the Rangers’ five position-player All-Stars delivered big-time RBIs as Texas defeated the Red Sox, 6-4, to even the series and snap a four-game losing skid.
- Games remaining (11): vs. BOS (1); vs. SEA (3); at LAA (3); at SEA (4)
- Standings update: The Rangers (83-68) are one game behind the Blue Jays (84-67), who beat the Yankees on Tuesday, for the second spot in the AL Wild Card race, and have the same record as the Mariners (83-68), after Seattle beat Oakland, for the third Wild Card spot. Texas is a half-game behind AL West-leading Houston (84-67), which fell to Baltimore.
- Tiebreakers: Lose vs. Houston; win vs. Toronto; lead vs. Seattle.
“It’s always good to get your guys back,” said manager Bruce Bochy, who was ejected in the top of the seventh for arguing balls and strikes. “We're getting down to the end here, so the timing is good that we are getting them healthy. I don't know what's going to happen, but at least you want your guys out there. And that's what we have right now. That’s a good thing.”
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García opened the scoring with a solo homer in the second inning, logging his first hit and RBI since he was activated off the IL ahead of the series opener against Boston. Jung, who was also activated on Monday, delivered an RBI single in the seventh to break the 4-4 tie.
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And Heim had probably his best game since he was activated off the IL on Aug. 13, producing a pair of doubles and a pair of RBIs. His career-high 87 RBIs are the third-most by a Texas catcher in a single season and the most since Iván Rodríguez in 1999 (club-record 113 for a catcher).
“It's just good to see everybody back in the lineup that we need in there to make a push,” Heim said. “So it's great to have Josh back, great to have Adolis back, they’re already making an impact, see what they did today. It just shows you when we're all completely healthy, how deep our lineup is. It's pretty special.”
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It wasn’t a perfect day, though. The Rangers went just 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position and stranded 10 on base. But it’s another step forward after a four-game losing streak, when Texas was outscored, 27-8, by Cleveland and Boston.
“We're still trying to find our stride, because we were all kind of coming back at weird spots, but we’re finally getting our legit lineup that did all those crazy things in the first half back,” Jung said. “It’s especially important down the stretch here.
“As an offense, we just want to do a better job of not having to put ourselves in those intense situations every night. So hopefully our offense can just keep rolling.”
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The offense was the headliner, but Eovaldi’s continued progress since returning from the IL on Sept. 5 was notable. The right-hander threw his most innings (five) and pitches (82) since being activated, though he allowed three runs in the third inning when he lost his command.
The bullpen picked him up and allowed just one unearned run over the last four innings to secure a victory.
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“It was a very great win,” Bochy said. “Great team, great character win, all those things. There were a lot of good things the guys did, the pitchers and position players. It's good to see them all do something to help win that ballgame. We got an early lead and then Nate had that one hiccup, but overall he threw well. They got a crooked number, but we had a good comeback. Then they tied the game and we came right back. They looked very determined tonight, didn’t they?”