Moreland’s career day powers Rangers to salvaging win
It wasn’t the happiest of road trips for the Texas Rangers, and one win in the finale doesn’t alter that.
But a gutsy, come-from-behind 6-5 win in the finale Thursday afternoon against the Minnesota Twins will go a long way in taking the sting out of the 2-4 trip.
The Rangers return home for a six-game homestand beginning Friday against Tampa Bay, another team fighting for a postseason berth. With Thursday’s win, the Rangers pulled to within a half-game of the Twins, one of four teams ahead of Texas in the race for the second wild card.
“I keep telling these guys we have a run in us,” manager Jeff Banister said. “I believe that. They rise to challenges even when it doesn’t look as pretty and clean as we all would like it to.”
Nothing was ugly about Mitch Moreland on Thursday. He snapped an 0-for-8 slump with a career-high four hits, including a two-run homer in the fourth that helped start the Rangers’ rally from a 4-0 hole.
His two-out double off the right-field wall in the fifth drove in two more runs and gave Texas a 5-4 lead.
“It was a good day,” said Moreland, who had four RBIs. “We needed that one, and it’s good to carry a little momentum back home.”
The four RBIs gave Moreland 61 for the season, surpassing his 2013 high of 60.
It wasn’t easy, of course. The Twins tied it 5-5 in the sixth after Keone Kela took over for starter Chi Chi Gonzalez with two outs and two on.
Aaron Hicks’ single up the middle scored the tying run, but a long throw from Elvis Andrus in shallow center caught Shane Robinson at home trying to give Minnesota the lead.
That ended the inning and the Rangers’ bullpen, which has taken its lumps of late, held the Twins to one hit the final three innings, including a perfect eighth by Jake Diekman and a perfect ninth by Shawn Tolleson, who earned his 21st save.
In the eighth, Andrus fell behind 0-2 with the go-ahead run in Adrian Beltre standing at third with no outs. He and Moreland had started the inning with singles. Andrus battled back and eventually sent a fly ball deep enough to center to score Beltre with the go-ahead run.
Overcoming the four-run deficit matches the club’s largest comeback win this season (May 2 vs. Oakland).
“I shortened my swing, choked up a little bit and just tried to make contact instead of hitting it hard,” Andrus said of the 0-2 count. “It was huge, especially after [Wednesday’s] game [an 11-1 loss]. Mitch deserves all the credit today.”
The Twins jumped on Gonzalez for four runs in the second. The inning started harmlessly enough as Gonzalez struck out Miguel Sano looking. But the next five batters reached with hits, including a homer by Trevor Plouffe and doubles by Chris Herrmann and Shane Robinson.
The inning included a rundown play after a single by Eduardo Escobar, who was caught between first and second. Meanwhile, Eddie Rosario had rounded third and eventually broke for the plate. Moreland fired home, but Rosario slid under and around Chris Gimenez’s glove and then beat him to the plate with his hand when it was clear he hadn’t yet touched the plate.
Gonzalez loaded the bases with two walks but got Sano, who started the inning with a strikeout, to fly out to right for the third out.
From there, Gonzalez retired 10 of the next 11 batters. In the sixth, with one out and one on, Gonzalez got Herrmann swinging on a cut fastball down in the zone but walked No. 9 hitter Robinson for the second time to put two on. Gonzalez (at 96 pitches) was replaced by Kela.
“Early on it looked like it was going to be a challenge for him because he was struggling to keep the ball down,” Banister said of the rookie Gonzalez, called up from Triple A for the start in place of Cole Hamels (sore groin). “Gutsy performance by him. Once he got the ball down in the zone he was able to use his breaking stuff.”
Stefan Stevenson, 817-390-7760
Twitter: @StevensonFWST
This story was originally published August 13, 2015 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Moreland’s career day powers Rangers to salvaging win."