Texas Rangers needed to rally to avoid another loss. The offense finally delivered.
Down two in the eighth inning and staring at the best bullpen arms the Arizona Diamondbacks could offer, the Texas Rangers’ hitters faced their tallest task of the young season.
They needed to score three times and had only six outs to it in if they wanted to avoid a fourth straight loss. The Rangers had played almost five full games and had scored only eight times.
What? You were worried?
Joey Gallo connected for a two-run homer to tie the game, and Elvis Andrus collected a two-out two-run go-ahead single as the Rangers scored five times in the eighth en route to a 7-4 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks.
The win snapped a three-game losing streak ahead of their first road trip of the shortened 60-game season this weekend. The surge came after the bullpen had blown a 2-0 lead after six and with the offense still not clicking the first seven innings.
“I think it was more the mentality that our players had prior to the game,” manager Chris Woodward said. “I feel like we’ve been in a good spot. We had a really good conversation with the hitters today. They led it, and a lot of their comments led me to believe they know what’s at stake.”
“But you could see there’s no panic. I felt there was a calmness about us. I felt one good at-bat, one big hit would break things open, and that’s exactly what happened.”
Todd Frazier connected for his first Rangers home run and doubled twice, and Lance Lynn tossed six scoreless innings for his second straight start to open the season. He allowed one hit and two walks while striking out eight.
Arizona led 4-2 in the eighth, when Rougned Odor drew a leadoff walk against in a tough lefty-vs.-lefty matchup with Andrew Chaffin. Gallo was next, and delivered an opposite-field homer to tie the game.
“Most of the time I’m trying to go the other way. Obviously, it’s easier said that done,” Gallo said. “I knew I had to fight right there and I wanted to at least move the guy to second base or put something in play, and I ended up squaring the ball up.”
Frazier followed with a double, and four batters later the bases were loaded with two outs for Andrus. He sent a line drive past shortstop to score two more, and Nick Solak followed with another RBI single.
“The one thing about Todd is he’s pretty streaky,” Woodward said. “One day he can not look as good, and the next day get four hits. He kind of sparked us today for sure.”
Lynn did his best work in the third, when Arizona put runners at first and third with no outs. They had the bases loaded with one out, but Lynn escaped without allowing any runs.
“I would rather have not loaded up the bases and all of that, but it worked out and we were able to get out of it,” Lynn said.
He retired the final 11 batters he faced, but Arizona scored twice in the seventh against Jesse Chavez and twice in the eighth against Jonathan Hernandez to put the Rangers’ offense in a tough spot.
What? You were worried?
“It was one of those gut-check times,” Frazier said. “You’ve got to step up, look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, we’re good. Let’s step up.’ They had opportunities to get us out of that inning and our wheels kept spinning. Very exciting times.”
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 7:46 PM.
