
All season, the pitching has bailed out the offense. Nobody’s pitching has been better than Nathan Eovaldi. And nobody’s offense has been worse than the Texas Rangers.
On the night Eovaldi has his one bad game of the year, he gives up five runs in just five innings and Jon Gray gives up a sixth in the sixth to put the Rangers in a hole 6-1.
Seeing as how Eovaldi flipped the script on his season, it was only fitting that the offense did the same. Not only was it surprising, it was absolutely necessary. With only one quarter of the season left, the Rangers cannot afford to lose any more ground.
The first two runs came from where they always come: off the bat of Corey Seager, the Rangers offense’s one-headed monster. He doubled in Josh Jung with two outs in the fourth for the Rangers first run, then singled in Josh Smith in the sixth to plate the Rangers second run.
It was still 6-2 at this point, and it was going to be hard for Seager to drive in four more. But Seager’s output is pretty much all the offense the Rangers sport this year.
Then something totally unusual happened. Someone other than Seager drove in a run. Semien singled after Seager’s single. One out later, Wyatt Langford stepped up. He had gone exactly one hundred at-bats without a home run. He hit a 3-2 pitch over the left field wall to make it zero at-bats without a home run, and give the Rangers a bit of hope at 6-5.
Then, in the bottom of the ninth, Rowdy Tellez led off with a game-tying home run. And suddenly, finally, unbelievably, and totally out of the blue, the Rangers offense came back from a 6-1 deficit.
Jake Burger sealed the unlikely comeback with a pinch-hit single in the bottom of the tenth to cap off one of the most satisfying and totally needed wins of the season.
It erased a five-run deficit. It erased a rare Nathan Eovaldi rough start. It erased a four-game losing streak.
Mostly, at least for one night, it erased a sense that this offense is too inept to come back.
*****

