The Texas Rangers’ offense finally comes alive in 9-5 victory over Giants
Elvis Andrus didn’t see any reason to hit the panic button. Neither did general manager Jon Daniels with the baseball season being just over a week old going into Sunday’s series finale at San Francisco.
The Rangers’ offense would come around, they said. Well, a few hours later both were proven right. The Rangers had their best offensive showing of the season in a 9-5 victory over the Giants at Oracle Park.
The nine runs were half of what the Rangers had scored in their first seven games (18) combined.
“It was pretty positive all around,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “Offensively it was good, quality at-bats. We put ourselves in some situations to do some damage.”
The stars of the game were outfielders Shin-Soo Choo and Joey Gallo. Choo hit a two-run homer off Giants starter Jeff Samardzija to give the Rangers a 5-1 lead in the fifth inning. Then, after the Giants rallied to tie it at 5-5 by the end of the end of the sixth inning, Gallo delivered a three-run home run as part of a four-run seventh.
Those proved to be the deciding runs.
“After they put up a pretty big inning and started to get momentum on their side, you could feel when we scored those four runs, momentum started going our way,” Gallo said. “It was a huge boost for us. We grinded out a few at-bats and ended up scoring some runs. It was a pretty good win.”
Outfielder Scott Heineman got the offense started with a two-run double in the second inning. Jeff Mathis followed with an RBI single.
But the Giants made it interesting with a couple home runs of their own in the sixth inning. Evan Longoria had a solo shot off Rangers reliever Ian Gibaut, and later Chadwick Tromp had a two-run blast off Jesse Chavez.
But Texas answered with Gallo’s third home run of the season. Gallo finished the day 3 for 4, including the home run and a two-out double in the ninth. Woodward praised Gallo afterward, calling him one of the best players in the game, and hasn’t ruled out moving him up in the lineup from the cleanup spot.
The Rangers are without two of their better bats with Danny Santana and Rougned Odor sidelined with injuries.
“I’ll do whatever I need to,” Gallo said. “I love batting cleanup. I think it’s the best spot for me. But if that’s what is best for the team, I’ll do it. I have a lot of belief in the guys in that clubhouse. There are good players in there. We are seeing the ball better and we’re having better at-bats.”
After Gallo’s home run in the seventh, the Rangers’ bullpen shut it down.
Right-hander Jonathan Hernandez threw scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth, and Edinson Volquez pitched the ninth. It was a nice rebound outing for Hernandez, who gave up two runs over one inning in his last appearance.
“Today I did what they asked me to do,” Hernandez said. “Last time, they gave it to me and I gave it right up. I came out to attack, attack, attack. That was my mentality. My pitches were a lot better than last time. I’ve spent a lot of time studying since then. I studied myself in the hotel room, going over my mechanics.”
The Rangers (3-5) have an off day Monday before opening a three-game series at Oakland on Tuesday.
This story was originally published August 2, 2020 at 7:24 PM.
