Rangers erupt late to rally past Tampa Bay

Finally, a seventh inning the Texas Rangers can celebrate.

The Rangers rallied from a three-run deficit in the seventh inning to storm back for a 9-5 win Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays at Globe Life Park.

The Rangers, down 5-2 with two outs in the seventh, surged back to life on a jolt by Elvis Andrus, who ripped a three-run homer into the stands in left field to tie it 5-5.

It was Andrus’ seventh homer, one behind his career-high of eight, which he hit last season. The seventh-inning rally follows after a series of rough seventh innings for the Rangers’ bullpen this season, including Monday night.

The Rangers scored four more in the eighth, including a two-run single by Andrus that pushed the lead to 9-5. With one out, Jonathan Lucroy and Joey Gallo singled before Ryan Rua walked on four pitches to load the bases. Jared Hoying, who entered the game in center field in the top of the eighth for defensive purposes, lined a long single off the top of the wall in right (missing a homer by a foot) to give the Rangers a 6-5 lead. Shin-Soo Choo’s sacrifice fly to right stretched the lead to 7-5.

Joey Gallo led off the seventh with a single but the Rangers had two outs before Shin-Soo Choo walked to bring up Andrus, who belted his seventh homer.

“I’m feeling really good,” said Andrus, who was 3 for 5 and collected his team-high 19th multi-hit game and team-high fourth three-hit game. “Playing at home this year means a lot to me, especially in front of these fans, who make me want to keep getting better.”

The bullpen, which has taken many of the lumps through the first two months of the season, was excellent Tuesday night. And they needed to be. Starter Nick Martinez left the game after  4 1/3 innings, trailing 5-2. Dillon Gee, who grew up in Cleburne dreaming of playing for the Rangers (and now lives in Aledo), made his Texas debut out of the bullpen and was huge. Gee pitched 2 2/3 innings of scoreless relief before handing the game over to Keone Kela and Matt Bush, who each pitched scoreless innings to close out the game.

“Fantastic job by Gee, coming in and managing the outs,” said Rangers manager Jeff Banister, who praised Kela for working for a third consecutive night. “Third day in a row for him, the velo and breaking ball was still there. He kind of willed himself to get the outs.”

Andrus said before Tuesday’s game that no one area of the team was responsible for the team’s struggles. That’s true, especially when you consider the rotation’s recent struggles and the offense’s sputtering consistency.

“I think that’s what we need to do as a team,” Andrus said. “I don’t like to make excuses. We’re a team. We’re going to win as a team and lose as a team.”

This story was originally published May 30, 2017 at 10:55 PM with the headline "Rangers erupt late to rally past Tampa Bay."