The Texas Rangers squandered a chance at recapturing a winning record by losing 4-3 to the Boston Red Sox on Thursday.
The Texas Rangers' four-game winning streak came to an end on Thursday with a 4-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.
The Rangers briefly recaptured a .500 record after taking the first two games of the series from Boston, but they have now fallen to 76-77 on the year and missed a chance to sweep. What contributed to their loss?
A blown lead
It did not take long for Texas to take control of the game.
In the bottom of the first inning, Josh Jung got the Rangers on the board with a two-out solo home run to right field. In the bottom of the second, they struck again.
The bottom of the frame began with leadoff batter Wyatt Langford drawing a walk before Burger drew a subsequent walk. Then, Nicky Lopez advanced both runners with a sacrifice bunt.
With his teammates in scoring position, Danny Jansen connected for an RBI single that scored Langford and gave Texas a 2-0 lead. Following Jansen’s at-bat, Evan Carter also laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Burger.
Going the small-ball route played in the Rangers’ favor. Though it was still early in the game, they possessed a 3-0 lead, and a sweep of a good Red Sox team after winning a series against a good Arizona Diamondbacks team was within reach.
It also would have been the first sweep Texas earned since late June, when they took four games from the Toronto Blue Jays on the road. But more importantly, it would have finally recaptured a winning record, yet the opportunity was squandered.
After four innings of scoreless baseball, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker went to his bullpen to call on Robby Ahlstrom, and that is when momentum began to change.
Ahlstrom started the inning by giving up back-to-back walks before getting his first out. But then, Boston’s Roman Anthony grounded into an RBI force out to put the Red Sox on the board.
Reliever Jakob Junis took over for Ahlstrom to finish the inning, and he was responsible for the collapse in the eighth inning.
Junis opened the eighth by walking the first batter he faced before hitting another with a pitch. He was able to force a pop-out, but Trevor Story made him pay with a go-ahead three-run homer that put Boston in front, 4-3.
The Rangers had six more outs to work with to tie or take the lead, but the momentum they had was permanently stolen by Story. For the remainder of the game, they only managed one more hit.
Texas will now enter the middle portion of its nine-game homestand by hosting the Blue Jays on Friday at 7:05 p.m. CDT.
