Rangers 4, Rays 3
Rangers 4, Rays 3
- Thank you, Marcus Semien.
- The slumping Marcus Semien parked a 422 foot home run into the bleachers with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, turning a 3-2 Ranger deficit into a 4-3 Ranger lead. And if you read the title of this post, you know the Rangers held on to win by that score.
- The Rangers have made an art of late out of not scoring runs late in games, particularly when trailing. When Jacob Latz hung a change up to Yandy Diaz in the top of the 7th, resulting in a three run, two out bomb to turn a shutout into a deficit, that seemed like that. The Rangers don’t come back when trailing late, we all know that, and we have come to accept that fact.
- It was too bad, too. Andrew Heaney had recorded 16 outs without allowing a run, Josh Sborz made his first major league appearance in almost two months and looked like he was okay. The Rangers looked like they might throw back to back shutouts, as the pitching staff continues to be bafflingly dominant at home in 2024 (coming into the game Rangers pitchers had allowed opponents a .203/.271/.328 slash line at Globe Life Field, or Park, whichever the Shed is officially called).
- Yandy appeared to put an end to the hopes of a modest two game winning streak, appeared to pave the way for more yelling and recriminations about a Ranger offense that refuses to score runs.
- Marcus Semien saved the day. After Leody Taveras led off the bottom of the 7th with a single, Andrew Knizner and Jonathan Ornelas struck out. There was a collective shrug from Rangers fans, okay, that was expected, it is late in the game and the Rangers were down, stranding a leadoff single is in the script.
- I still am kind of confused by Marcus Semien hitting that go ahead home run. It was a lightning bolt, out of the blue. Unexpected, to say the least. A game winner.
- Texas had only registered six hits in the game prior to Semien’s homer, all singles. Texas scored a run in the second, with Andrew Knizner driving home Leody Taveras with an RBI single. Yes, The Andrew Knizner. Nathaniel Lowe singled home Marcus Semien in the third for the second run. Both innings, the RBI singles resulted in runners on the corners, the potential for a big — or bigger, at least — inning. It was to no avail.
- But on this day, at least, it didn’t matter that the offense sputtered. Marcus Semien saw to that. Maybe the offense is still not where it needs to be, but we don’t have to worry about that today.
- Andrew Heaney’s fastball maxed out at 94.2 mph, averaging 91.9 mph. Josh Sborz topped out at 95.8 mph. Jacob Latz hit 96.1 mph with his fastball. Jonathan Hernandez threw two pitches, both sliders, one at 86.0 mph, one at 84.1 mph. David Robertson reached 93.6 mph with his cutter. Kirby Yates’ fastball touched 93.8 mph.
- Leody Taveras had a 107.9 mph single. Jonah Heim had a 107.3 mph single. Corey Seager had a 106.4 mph fly out. Marcus Semien’s home run was 105.3 mph off the bat. Adolis Garcia had a 102.1 mph ground out.
- That was fun. I liked winning a game like that, rather than losing a game like that. Let’s win more of these and lose fewer.