Rangers 9, Padres 7
- And like that, the Rangers’ losing streak ends.
- Didn’t look that way at first, though, did it?
- Uncharacteristic wildness from Jacob deGrom in the first inning, capped off by a Ty France grand slam, meant the Rangers were down 5-0 before they ever came to the plate.
- The France bomb was church, it seemed like.
- But not to your resilient Rangers.
- Bottom of the first, there’s an E1, a couple of walks, a cavalcade of doubles, a couple of infield singles…
- And like that, the Rangers are up 6-5. We feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The cold pricklies have been banished, at least for the moment.
- One of the fun things about baseball is that you see a lot of fun and unusual stuff if you watch long enough, get to experience weird things.
- Like two teams combining for 11 runs in the first inning.
- After the first, things calmed down, of course. The Rangers outscored the Twins 3-2 the rest of the way. It was a low-scoring affair, really, after the first.
- deGrom retired 15 of 16 batters in one stretch. Of course, the one batter he didn’t retire was Ty France, who hit a home run. And the batter who broke up that stretch was Ty France, who doubled. That was followed by an intentional walk and an F9 to end the inning, and deGrom’s day.
- Six hits allowed by deGrom, half of them by France. Three walks, one intentional. Nine strikeouts.
- It looks like a pretty decent outing, if you don’t look at the runs allowed.
- The Rangers have now allowed 63 runs in 75 first innings this year, including 25 home runs.
- Openers for everyone, maybe?
- Jakob Junis and Jacob Latz combined to finish things out, with Junis allowing a run in the eighth and prompting Skip Schumaker to bring in Latz for a four out save.
- Wyatt Langford put up a 3 for 5 night, including a 430 foot homer in the eighth.
- Langford is now slashing .258/.300/.447, with a 108 wRC+, despite his awful start to the season.
- Langford’s homer is the seventh longest ball hit at the Shed this season. 11 of the 12 farthest balls hit this season have been since the start of the Houston series on May 26.
- Jacob deGrom hit 99.5 mph with his fastball, averaging 96.9 mph. Jakob Junis touched 93.9 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz’s fastball maxed out at 95.1 mph.
- Wyatt Langford’s home run was 107.1 mph, and he had a 104.5 mph double. Brandon Nimmo had a 105.8 mph double and a 102.7 mph. double. Jake Burger had a 105.7 mph double. Josh Jung had a 105.3 mph single. Ezequiel Duran had a 103.5 mph single. Alejandro Osuna had a 102.1 mph double.
- We can think positively now, at least for a little bit, and hope this continues through the weekend.
