Arlington, TX. – The Texas Rangers had a rough start to the homestand losing the series against the Tigers over the weekend. They looked to get back on track against the division rival Angels.
Jacob deGrom took the ball for Texas, while the visiting Angels sent Jose Soriano to the hill. deGrom continued his first inning struggles as he gave up 2 in the top of the first and put the Rangers in a 2-0 hole.
The Rangers responded in the second by plating two runs of their own on a 2 RBI double off the bat of Nicky Lopez and the game was all tied up.
“Jacob was fighting the whole game” Schumaker told us. “He had a little bit of a leg/hip issue, through out the game from the start of the game. For him to give us five innings like he did was really impressive, he gutted it out”
According to deGrom later, he has suffered this type of leg and hip pain many times in his career, but usually it subsides before his next start. This time it did not.
“I felt this in between starts” deGrom said to the media after the game. “It hasn’t been an issue whenever my day’s rolled around. This week it kind of lingered, and we worked on it in between like we normally had, this week it just kind of lingered. I felt it when I was out there, I felt it when I was warming up…”
deGrom pitched 5 innings allowing the 2 runs and threw 80 pitches. Cole Winn came in and pitched a 1-2-3 6th before Chris Martin came in for the 7th and gave up the go ahead run on a hit by Oswaldo Perez, a stolen base and another hit by Wade Meckler.
Justin Foscue pinch hit for Evan Carter in the bottom of the 7th and delivered a 3 ball 2 strike homerun to left field and the game was all tied up again.
The Rangers now have 3 pinch hit homers on the season. But Foscue wasn’t done. After Ezequiel Duran gave the Rangers the 4-3 lead in the 8th, Foscue gave the team an insurance run with his own RBI single.
“Pinch hitting is the hardest thing to do, as a hitter in this game” manager Sjip Schumaker told us after the win. “It is a nightmare to try and gameplan for one at bat…for him [Foscue] to be this successful [with his] pinch hit, and then another big hit later in the game was really impressive…”
That was followed up by a 3-run-shot by Alejandro Osuna and the Rangers broke it open. Tyler Alexander came in to shut it down and the Rangers took the first game of the series by the final of 8-3.
The story of this one is once again was the bottom of the order guys. Foscue, Osuna, Diaz. They continue to come through when the Rangers need offense.
This is a team without Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford, and a team that has Evan Carter hitting sub-.200.
The Rangers look to continue winning tomorrow as they have MacKenzie Gore going to the mound for the Rangers.
