Ezequiel Duran ripped a walk-off double as the Texas Rangers took down the San Francisco Giants 5-4 at Globe Life Field on Tuesday.
ARLINGTON, Texas - Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker called Monday night's 5-1 loss his team's "worst game of the season."
Less than 24 hours later, the Rangers responded by taking down the San Francisco Giants 5-4 at Globe Life Field on Tuesday night behind a walk-off double off the bat of Ezequiel Duran.
As Schumaker often says, "It always starts with starting pitching," and that was certainly the case for Texas tonight, which got a stellar performance from MacKenzie Gore.
Gore fired six shutout innings, allowing just three hits and three walks while striking out four in one of his better starts of the season.
“We made pitches when we had to,” Gore said after the game. “Tonight wasn’t necessarily about how pretty it was gonna be, but we needed to figure out a way to win and get back going in the right direction.
"And we did that, and we have a chance to win the series tomorrow, so just a huge win for us, it was a tough week but it’s now over with and we can move forward.”
With the performance on Tuesday night, Gore has now strung together 12 scoreless innings, the third-longest streak of his career.
Despite Gore’s big night, the hero of the game was no doubt Duran, who drove in four of the Rangers' five runs.
After a 4-for-4 performance on Monday night, Duran is now 7-for-9 with a home run, three doubles, and a single in this series.
“He [Duran] nicknamed himself ‘The Solution’ for a reason, and it’s no joke; he really is at times, and he’s been that the whole year,” Schumaker said.
In the eighth inning with the game tied at 2-2, it looked like Duran had won the game for Texas then as he blasted a go-ahead two-run double to put the Rangers ahead 4-2.
However, in the ninth, All-Star closer Jacob Latz blew his first save since May, leading to a wild finish.
“I’m glad we won the game; a lot of things happened where you could have gone ‘here we go again’ with finding ways to lose on a losing streak with the assumption in the dugout, but it wasn’t,” Schumaker said.
“That was really encouraging for us after a tough loss yesterday and then getting the lead and letting it get taken away… for the guys to fight back.”
