Arlington, TX, – The Texas Rangers began a 4 game series against the Mariners on Friday at Globe Life Field. The Rangers had a half game lead going into game 1 of the series.
Wyatt Langford led off the scoring with a one out solo shot to left field and the Rangers led 1-0 in the bottom of the first. The Mariners answered in the top of the second with a few walks and a single off the bat of Weston Wilson that scored Josh Naylor,
In the fourth inning Jake Burger gave the Rangers the lead back with a 2-run shot off of Bryce Miller to make 3-1 Rangers. Gore gave up 2 runs right away in the top of the fifth and the game was once again tied. This time the score was 3-3.
The Rangers re-took the lead again in the 6th inning, which included a squeeze bunt from Nicky Lopez, gave the Rangers a 5-3 advantage.
“We got [Nicky Lopez] to provide really solid defense. I can’t remember a game where he hasn’t got a hit or done something, provide something offensively where he hasn’t produced a run.” Skip Schumaker said after the game.
Jacob Latz came in and shut the door on Seattle and the Rangers defeated the M’s by the final of 5-4.
“You know I wanted to [use Jake Latz for multiple innings]” Skip joked after the Rangers win. “You can’t do it everytime, so, I want Latz every inning.”
Jake Burger had a big game for Texas, going 2-4 and knocking in 3, helping the Rangers take the lead 2 different times in the game.
“Jake Burger has had a lot of clutch hits this year” Schumaker told us. “The home run was huge, they bring in a reliever that’s on the ground a lot, [Burger] hits one through the middle. He used the whole field tonight. Jake Burger’s a winning player.
Nicky Lopez also continued to be productive as he laid a squeeze bunt that turned into a base hit and a run.
The only down side was that MacKenzie Gore again seemed to have difficulty getting left handed batters out.
“The lefty thing has kind of been weird” Gore told the media after his 5 inning start tonight. “The one inning we walked the two lefr handers. In the fifth, I thought the single wasn’t hit very hard. We were going sinker in, and we got the sinker in…and then I thought the slider was kind of down the middle.”
The Rangers are now 1.5 games up on the Mariners in first place, and they have 3 more games in this series to try and get more a wider gap between themselves and the second place M’s.
Jacob Latz notched his 20th save tonight, becoming the first left handed closer since Will Smith (23) with 20 or more saves.
