Rangers Drop Series Opener to Diamondbacks

The Texas Rangers were not treated kindly in Friday night’s series opener against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix.

After four scoreless innings, the Rangers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the fifth but would only manage that one run as they fell 9-1.

It was Joc Pederson who drove in the lone run of the night on an RBI double that scored Jake Burger.

However, after that, Texas was unable to add on, and in the bottom half of the frame, MacKenzie Gore, who had looked strong up until that point, would allow four runs.

“In the fifth inning, when we scored a run, we had a chance to add on with runners in scoring position and just didn’t add on,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said after the game.

“They ended up responding with a four-run bottom half. I think just a lack of execution on a couple of pitches with Gore ended up costing us. The hanging changeup to Marte and Vargas got to a fastball, kinda an 0-2 fastball in the middle of the plate. Good hitters make you pay, unfortunately.”

Gore would finish the night going just four innings, allowing five hits and the four runs while walking three and striking out just two.

After Gore, the Rangers would use four relievers to pitch the game’s remaining four innings as Jakob Junis, Chase Silseth, Adam Macko, and Jordan Montgomery combined to allow five earned runs.

“You’re just trying to stop the bleeding as best you can; you’re just trying to match up and give your offense the best chance, but we just couldn’t contain them tonight, and there’s only one way to go about this is you got to flush it quickly and try to go about it a better way tomorrow,” Schumaker said.

“A brutal couple of days, there’s no sugarcoating it, but we have to flush it tonight and have a chance to win tomorrow,” Schumaker finished.

With the loss, the Rangers fall to 72-76 on the season and will come into play on Saturday three games back of first place in the American League West and three games back of the AL’s final Wild Card spot.

“We still have some games; time hasn’t run out yet,” Schumaker said. “There’s a lot of games to play, but we’ve got to get going. After a tough loss last night, it only defines you if you allow it, and we’re trying not to let it define us just yet so we have some time, but we gotta get going, and it starts tomorrow.”