ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers donned their sparkling new City Connect uniforms for the first time over the weekend and promptly lost the opener to the moribund Oakland Athletics. A big bounce-back effort from the Peagle the following night, and a victory in Sunday’s finale gave Texas another series victory.
The Rangers now sit at 14-7 which ties them for the second best record in the American League and keeps them atop the AL West. Here’s a look back at how Texas secured their latest series victory:
A series opener of unfortunate events
Friday night’s opener looked like it was going to go pretty well for Texas, as they began the scoring against Oakland with a four-run first inning. Unfortunately, Jon Gray labored through the contest, struggling through the first three innings of scoreless ball until cracks started to give way to canyon-sized fissures.
The A’s scored in three consecutive innings (one run in the 4th, two in the 5th, and one in the 6th) to tie the game. All four of those runs ended up on Gray’s ledger – though, just three were earned runs – as he failed to make it out of the 6th. Ultimately, though, it would be Will Smith who gave up the first career home run to pinch hitter Jordan Diaz in the top of the ninth that broke the tie.
The offense, meanwhile, after the barrage of runs in the first, were held in check by Oakland starter JP Sears, who ended up striking out 11 Rangers on the night. The reversal of fortune proved too much as Texas dropped the opener and saw their winning streak end at four games.
The Adolis Garcia Show
The first ball put in play by Oakland in Saturday’s contest came on a 1st inning fly ball off the bat of Esteury Ruiz that bounced fair where it appeared right fielder Adolis Garcia had room to catch it. Instead, the hit ended up in the stands for an automatic double.
Ruiz came around to score two pitches later, putting Texas in an early hole. By the end of the inning, the Athletics were up 2-0 and Texas looked doomed to an embarrassing series loss to last place Oakland.
Garcia must have felt bad about that double. The Texas cleanup hitter made up for it in spades and with a vengeance as he cranked a two-run homer to left to tie the contest. Two at-bats later, after he had already scored another run, Garcia blasted another two-run homer to center.
In his next at-bat, Garcia pounded yet another two-run homer to left-center, accomplishing something that hasn’t been done in five years. Not since Ronald Guzman at Yankee Stadium had a Texas Ranger hit three homers in a game, but Adolis Garcia became the 18th player in franchise history to do it.
All in all, “El Bombi” Garcia collected 1,253 feet worth of home runs.
The history-making night for Garcia also continued when he crossed the plate for his fifth run scored, tying a franchise record.
By the end of the evening, and with two more extra base hits, Garcia had collected the second most total bases in team history with 16 and his eight runs knocked in left him one shy of Pudge Rodriguez’s 1999 franchise record. Garcia also finished the night atop the MLB leaderboard for RBIs.
Turning a corner
Robbie Grossman, signed for the cheap price of $2 million in the offseason to plug an outfield hole that had turned into an offensive black hole in the lineup. Mired in a slump for much of the season, however, Grossman was showing signs of life while on a five-game hitting streak. That culminated in the finale against Oakland, as Grossman smacked a 3-run home run that proved the difference maker.
The 33-year old drove four of the five runs for Texas on Sunday, adding a sacrifice fly later in the contest. The Rangers have perhaps learned that Grossman won’t be a key performer in the lineup, but he can be a player that adds to the hit parade.
Other players that had a good Oakland series? Leody Taveras went 4-for-10 with three runs scored. Ezequiel Duran also went 4-for-10 and is on a 5-game hitting streak.
deGrom with deUsual
It will probably never be tiring seeing Jacob deGrom pitch in a Rangers’ uniform, but the 34-year old had another “typical” deGrom performance. The righty went six innings, giving up two runs (though, only one earned) on a rare mistake pitch while walking none and striking out 11.
In striking out those 11 Athletics, deGrom completed his 60th career double-digit strikeout game. He is also now at a career-high 14.51 strikeouts per nine innings rate and 14.33 strikeouts per walk.
Since the clunker on Opening Day against Philadelphia, deGrom has been exactly as requested for Texas. In his last four starts, deGrom has gone 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA spanning 23 innings and has held opponents to a .150 batting average.
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