HOUSTON – It has been a week for the Rangers. Lost Mitch Garver for a month on Monday. Lost Corey Seager for a month the next day. Nearly watched Jon Gray’s arm go up in smoke over the weekend. Meanwhile, the outfield and DH carousel seems stalled.
And, yet, when it was done, this is where things stood: They had won a series at Houston for the first time in nearly five years; they had a lead in the AL West of more than one game for the first time in nearly six seasons.
They are, at least for the moment, surviving.
In Sunday’s 9-1 win over the Astros, the Rangers broke open a scoreless game in the seventh by parlaying an error and a bases-loaded walk into a much bigger inning capped off by Marcus Semien’s screaming liner into the Crawford Boxes above left field.
“I love the fight they have,” said birthday boy manager Bruce Bochy, who turned 68 Sunday. “They’ve had some tough games. But they bounce back and play well. We had a game [Saturday] that got away from us. You look at the history between these teams and you get a close game late and you know they could say ‘Oh, no, here we go again.’
“But we have to find a way,” said birthday boy manager Bruce Bochy, who turned 68 Sunday. “We’re not talking about [what we are missing]. There is no point in it. We don’t have a choice. We’ve got to go out and find a way.”
A night after a close game turned ugly late, the Rangers came back to win the series. It was their first series win in Houston since 2018. They are 9-6 through 15 games, the only team in the AL West above .500.
Marcus Semien capped off the big inning with a grand slam, the kind of thing that hasn’t happened for them in Houston the last six years. Semien’s screaming liner into the Crawford Boxes over left field at Minute Maid Park came on a two-out, 0-2 pitch from Hector Neris. Forget the last six years; it’s the kind of thing that hasn’t happened to the Rangers, almost ever.
The seventh demonstrated what the Rangers must do with Seager (strained hamstring) and Garver (sprained knee) out until sometime into May. When presented with an opportunity, they have to pounce. They pounced like they rarely have.
Put it this way: Over the previous 25 years, the Rangers had the patience to take one bases-loaded walk in scoreless game in the seventh inning or later and had on three occasions hit two-out, 0-2 grand slams. On Sunday, they did both. In the same inning.
The Rangers had one hit and a walk, both by Jonah Heim, through six innings against Framber Valdez. Nathaniel Lowe began the inning by lining a full-count cutter, the third straight cutter from Valdez into the right field corner for a double. It extended his hitting streak to 11 games, matching his career high.
The Rangers loaded the bases on shortstop Jeremy Peña’s low throw on Adolis García’s grounder and Josh Jung’s soft single. Heim then took a 3-1 sinker, just off the outside corner to force in the first run. The last time a Ranger hitter did that in a scoreless game in the seventh or later, it was Kevin Elster. The year was 1998.
“We know he’s got a really good sinker,” Heim said. “I was just trying to see him up. If it wasn’t up, I wasn’t going after it. It was a really good pitch in that situation, but if I offer at that, it’s a double play.”
After Heim’s walk, Robbie Grossman, in an 0 for 22 skid, bounced a ball through the left side to score a second run and force Valdez from the game. Reliever Hector Neris got two quick outs and got ahead of Semien with a splitter down in the zone and followed with a four-seamer away for a foul ball. He returned to the splitter once again but left it at the knees. Semien lined it into the boxes. According to baseball-reference, it was just the fourth time a Ranger has had the ultimate at-bat leverage turnaround, hitting a two-out, 0-2 pitch for a grand slam.
“I was definitely down in a hole,” Semien said. “I think it took me swinging at that first splitter to get an idea of where I had to be.”
Said Bochy: “Euphoria hit the dugout.”
No, he wasn’t talking about the latest season of Zendaya’s hit TV series.
The Rangers have had plenty of drama in their most recent season. Sunday’s episode offered the latest example of the plot twist of this season.
“We’re a better team,” Semien said. “We get in a situation with a runner on third base and less than two outs and we are calm and have the ability to do well in those situations.”
You might even say that right now the Rangers are more than just surviving.
