Rangers blow 17th save to limp home after 4-6 road trip

Good grief.

For the second time in three days and for the 17th time this season, the Texas Rangers blew a save.

This time it wasn’t Sam Dyson or Matt Bush. Younger right-hander Jose Leclerc, on the mound with two outs in the eighth and the Rangers clinging to a one-run lead, was taken deep by Yolmer Sanchez for a go-ahead two-run homer to give the Chicago White Sox a 6-5 victory.

The Rangers loaded the bases in the ninth after Rougned Odor reached on an infield single, Elvis Andrus doubled down the left-field line and Adrian Beltre was intentionally walked, but Carlos Gomez struck out. The final strike wasn’t without drama, however, as the pitch got past catcher Kevan Smith, who retrieved the ball and raced back to beat pinch-runner Joey Gallo to the plate to end the game.

“A loss is a loss. They all suck. Obviously, [the blown saves] are frustrating, but I don’t think it changes our outlook on anything else,” said catcher Jonathan Lucroy. “Hopefully, we keep giving our bullpen chances to close games out for us like that. That’s all you can do as a lineup. We have to do a better job. All of us do.”

The Rangers lead the majors with 17 blown saves this season. They had four during their 10-game road trip that ended Sunday. To put that in perspective, they had 17 blown saves during the entire 2016 season. The Rangers still have six games at Globe Life Park before the All-Star break.

Starter Tyson Ross battled through command issues (five walks and a hit batter) over the first five innings but left with a 5-4 lead. The restructured bullpen was working well as Ernesto Frieri and Matt Bush combined for scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh.

With one out, Leclerc had an 0-2 count against Todd Frazier but walked him. He struck out Matt Davidson on a 97 mph fastball for the second out and had Sanchez down 0-2 before releasing his 78 mph curve ball that was launched into the right-field stands.

“It’s a hard one to take, but it’s already gone. I’ve never liked to stay on something negative,” said Andrus, who was 2 for 5 with an RBI, his 50th of the season. His career-high was 69 in 2016. “We have to get better at closing games.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2017 at 8:16 PM with the headline "Rangers blow 17th save to limp home after 4-6 road trip."