Coming into play on Sunday afternoon, nothing had gone well for the Rangers in their series this weekend with the Dodgers.
Despite the struggles, Texas had a chance to salvage a game in this series as they looked to avoid the sweep.
In the first inning, it almost seemed like we were playing the 10th inning of yesterday’s Dodger’s offensive onslaught when Max Muncy smoked a grand slam off Rangers starter Martin Perez to put LA up 4-0 before Texas even touched a bat.
However, unlike yesterday the Rangers had a response. Two walks and a Two RBI double from Jonah Heim cut the Dodgers’ lead in half and made it 4-2 heading into the second.
In the 2nd, Texas would inject some life into this crowd which Dodgers fans have vastly outnumbered; it seemed this weekend.
Walks from Brad Miller and Josh Smith would be followed by RBI singles from Marcus Semien, Nathaniel Lowe, and Josh Jung to put the Rangers ahead 5-4.
After giving up the four runs in the first, Martin Perez was absolutely lights out. The Rangers lefty threw five straight scoreless innings allowing just three hits after the first. Overall, not a great day for Perez but one that you will most definitely take and hope he can carry over to his next start.
After the game, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said:
“Great job by Martin; it was not an efficient start, as you say, but for him to regroup and bounce back like that and shut them out the next five innings, it says a lot about who he is; because of him, we won that ballgame.”
Leody Taveras and Ezequiel Duran added RBI doubles in the 3rd and 4th, respectively, and the Rangers offense was officially pouring it on as they led 8-4 after four innings.
With the Rangers leading 8-4 in the 7th, Brock Burke, Aroldis Chapman, and Will Smith came out of the Texas bullpen to throw three scoreless innings and help the Rangers avoid the sweep.
The depth of this team really carried them to victory today in the absence of All-Stars Corey Seager and Adolis Garcia.
When speaking about the back-end depth pieces of the lineup, Bochy said:
“[Ezequiel] Duran had a good day, [Brad] Miller on base three times, [Leody] Taveras with that big hit, a lot of good things happened, which you need when you gotta rest some guys; these guys came through off a tough ballclub so I can’t say enough about how they bounced back today.”
The Rangers won 8-4 to complete a 7-2 homestand which is really, really good considering they took on the Guardians, Rays, and Dodgers.
Texas will travel to Houston, where they will open a three-game series tomorrow night with the defending champion Houston Astros. Jon Gray will get the ball in game one.
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