Friday night marked the beginning of the biggest homestand for the Texas Rangers in a very, very long time.
Coming into play, Texas sat one game back of both Seattle and Houston for the AL West lead.
With the Minnesota Twins rolling into town this weekend, it would be a rematch of the four-game set the two teams played at Target Field last week, where the Twins took three of four.
Corey Seager reached qualifying status tonight after his four, and to celebrate, he launched a 93 MPH fastball into the right field seats to put the Rangers up 1-0 in the 4th. Seager’s home run was a lined shot with a 114.4 exit velocity.
Max Scherzer got the ball for the Rangers tonight and was every bit of dominate in this one. Scherzer had everything going for him as he went six innings, allowing just one hit and no runs while striking out seven.
With the Rangers leading 1-0 in the 7th, it would be up to the bullpen to get nine outs and secure the win.
Unfortunately, that lead wouldn’t even last another half inning as Brock Burke came in and surrendered two home runs, one a two-run shot from Jordan Luplow and the other a solo home run from Christian Vazquez, and the Twins took a 3-1 lead in the 7th.
Josh Sborz came on to pitch the 8th, and he would surrender a two-run home run to Jorge Polanco to push the Twins’ lead out to 5-1.
It was clear that the Texas bullpen did not leave their struggles in the month of August.
When speaking about the bullpen struggles after the game, Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said:
“It’s one thing giving up hits, but we’re giving up the long ball; right now, they’re struggling a bit. Let’s be honest here; we gotta get it right.”
The Rangers fell by a score of 5-1 to open this homestand. The Texas offense could only score one run, and their bullpen gave up five.
Recent struggles continued for the Rangers tonight as the offense could muster up just one run on the Corey Seager home run, and the bullpen continued to struggle.
Bruce Bochy said:
“You gotta keep believing and keep working, and these guys are doing that, trust me.”
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