ARLINGTON, Texas — There was something of a sense of hope for the Texas Rangers going into this series against the Mets. The National League’s New York team, after all, had long declared themselves to be out of the playoff hunt and the Rangers, losers of nine of their last ten going into the series, had played so badly that something felt like it had to give.
It did give, somewhat, as Texas would finish this road trip with a series win, but the repercussions of their poor play in the second half of the month caught up to them as another brutal loss in the finale spurred on by their leaky bullpen kicked the Rangers down to third place in the American League West.
- Game 131: Texas 4, New York 3 (W: Perez, 9-4, L: Gott, 0-4, Sv: Leclerc, 2)
- Game 132: Texas 2, New York 1 (W: Stratton, 2-1, L: Smith, 4-5, Sv: Chapman, 4)
- Game 133: Texas 5, New York 6 (W: Brigham, 1-2, L: Chapman, 5-3)
Three Up
A good streak to break – The streak was 47 games long. The metric was in games lost by the Rangers when trailing after eight innings. No, the Rangers had not won a game all year when they were trailing after eight innings. The late-inning rallies just never came all season long and the bullpen usually made sure any close contest would be a loss for Texas.
But on Monday night, as the Rangers opened the series against the Mets, in the top of the 9th inning, Jonah Heim singled and Ezequiel Duran doubled to give Texas two men on and nobody out in a one-run game. Leody Taveras and Marcus Semien cut it close by striking out, but after the persistently dangerous Corey Seager was walked intentionally, Nathaniel Lowe bounced a grounder to right field to turn the game around and eventually secure the win, the first 9th inning comeback for the Rangers.
After a week and a half of heartbreaking losses, this could be looked at as one of the three most important wins of the season for Texas. Their 4-3 win on Monday also broke a streak of 4 straight losses in one-run games.
Heaney comes up heads – For most of the season, Rangers starter Andrew Heaney has been up and down, with a few more downs than ups. For most of August, Heaney has been far more down than up, especially in his last three starts, but on Tuesday, Heaney was up.
Although he didn’t get the win, pitching just 5 ⅓ innings, they were 5 ⅓ shutout innings, as the lefty gave up just five hits, one walk, and struck out seven. Momentum is as good as the next day’s starting pitcher, and Heaney kept the good momentum from the night before rolling pretty well as Texas eventually won the game to earn the series win.
Garver carving – While Jonah Heim was on the injured list with a wrist injury, the drop off from the All-Star catcher to Mitch Garver appeared stark. But Garver played his way into being the primary DH and taking more games behind the plate for Heim to rest the wrist and ended up with an incredible August.
Over the course of this series against the Mets, Garver managed to be a factor in the second game, hitting a solo home run to break open a scoreless tie. For the month of August, Garver slashed .302/.394/.628 with 8 homers, 16 RBI, 12 walks and 14 runs scored to serve as one of Texas’ primary threats in the lineup when many of them hit month-long slumps.
Three Down
An inauspicious save – After losing nine of ten, when the team wins the next two of three, you just want to take it and run, no questions asked. But with Will Smith having surrendered ten runs in his previous nine appearances, the club was back to using Aroldis Chapman as their closer after a weekend of blown saves and surrendered runs.
Chapman, after blowing a save on Sunday against the Twins, was given a chance at redemption on Tuesday. With Texas up 2-0, Chapman was tasked with the 9th inning and a save opportunity. He did surrender a home run, though, making it the second home run he’s given up in four appearances, and the third run in that time frame as well.
Chapman is probably the more logical choice to be a closer down the stretch, but fastballs, even 103-MPH ones, can be hit and hit far, and the big lefty needs to be reliant on more than just the heater to be effective.
This was proven further in the finale, as Chapman, in extras, intentionally walked Pete Alonso, then unintentionally walked Francisco Alvarez to load the bases before hitting DJ Stewart to walk in the winning run in another loss where the bullpen came undone.
Unloaded – The finale of this series was well within reach to win and complete a much-needed sweep against a bad team. Even though it was a bullpen game, it wasn’t a typical bullpen game that the Rangers had faced in that they scored runs throughout the game.
It took until the 4th for Corey Seager to put them on the board, but they slowly built up a 5-3 lead after trailing 3-0 early, including a key, two-out, bases loaded single from Jonah Heim in the top of the 8th. But the Rangers had another chance with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth, when, after an Adolis Garcia bases-loaded walk to bring Texas within a run, Garver and Heim both struck out swinging.
In the eventful 8th inning, while Heim did deliver the clutch single after Garcia walked to tie the game, in between those two events lay an opportunity to strike harder. Garver tapped one back to the mound, resulting in a 1-2-3 double play, killing off what could have been a much bigger rally.
In the top of the 10th, after the bullpen had blown the 5-3 lead to send the game to extras, Texas again had the bases loaded without an out when Heim rifled a 93-MPH line drive that found its way into Francisco Lindor’s glove, who had him shaded up the middle. Travis Jankowski then grounded into another unusual double play, this time a 3-2-4 twin killing that killed the rally and ultimately killed the Rangers’ chances.
First to third – The Rangers, after starting the road trip 1.5 games ahead of Houston in first place in the AL West, finish the road trip in third place behind Seattle and Houston. On the day of the finale, both the Mariners and Astros did something that the Rangers had not done this month. Seattle and Houston both won when Texas lost.
In the series against the Giants, when Houston and Seattle both lost, Bruce Bochy trotted out a lineup intending to give his key players a day of rest, but they lost, resulting in no gained ground. Over the course of the 8-game losing streak, Texas had several winnable games where either the Mariners or Astros lost on the same day and by the time they broke the losing streak in Minnesota, both Seattle and Houston had made up the ground that Texas couldn’t gain.
The result is a month where Texas started with an 8-game winning streak, were up as much as 3.5 games in August and finally fell so far down, finishing the month at 15-12, they ended up in third place with only September left to pull themselves back to the top of the division.
Do you think the Rangers will bounce back in September? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
More Texas headlines: