Rangers’ reliever Jose Leclerc blew his first save of the season on Wednesday as Texas watched Oakland carve away at an early 5-1 deficit to take an 8-7 win with two runs in their final at-bat.
Oakland’s Stephen Vogt pinch-hit for Dermis Garcia after Vimael Machin tied the game with a two-out RBI double against Leclerc in the ninth. What should have been a routine inning-ending putout to first turned into an error when Corey Seager couldn’t corral the ball, allowing Machin to score the game-winning run while Vogt advanced to second on the throw.
“We just didn’t close it out,” Rangers skipper Tony Beasley told MLB.com.
Beasley said the ball hit to Seager had enough top-spin to bounce off of Seager’s glove – he was near second base instead of his shortstop position as the Rangers were in a defensive mode.
“That happens,” Beasley said. “I mean, you know, obviously, we want to make those plays, and we definitely want to keep that run from scoring for sure. But you know. We didn’t pitch well at all. We didn’t finish.”
The Rangers fall to 62-81 with the loss but have vaulted back into third place in the AL West after winning four of their last 10. Texas is all but mathematically eliminated from the playoff as they are 31 games behind Houston in the AL West and 17.5 games out of the final wild-card spot with just 19 games left this season.
Dane Dunning got the starting nod for Texas, lasted 4.2 innings, and allowed six runs; four earned while allowing two homers, three walks, and striking out five.
The Rangers pitching staff allowed six extra-base hits in the loss, including three home runs.
“I feel like we have a good grasp on the game tonight, and we were playing with the lead,” Beasley said. “You know, we missed a few spots, and little mistakes we made ended up in the seats.”
Dennis Santana – on the hook for the third long-ball allowed by Oakland – pitched 1.1 innings in Dunning’s absence and allowed two runs on two hits with one base on the ball and three punchouts.
Texas started lighting up the scoreboard in the bottom of the second. Mark Mathias led off the inning with a solo homer, his sixth of the year, and Marcus Semien belted his 23rd bomb of the year five batters later, a three-run job with Jonah Heim (a single) and Nick Solak (hit by pitch) scoring.
Texas added two more runs on the scoreboard in the fifth when Adolis Garcia hit his fifth triple of the year ahead of Heim’s 14th homer of the season, pushing Garcia home for a 7-4 Rangers lead.
Jonathan Hernández and Matt Moore each earned a hold in the Texas loss, numbers two and 11, respectively, but the sloppy ninth inning by the Rangers on defense and Leclerc on the mound drops his record to 0-3 with the loss.
The Rangers have a travel day on Thursday before starting a three-game series in Tampa Bay against the Rays starting on Friday, September 16.
Probable pitchers for the Friday tilt are Rangers ace Martin Perez (11-6, 2.77) and Corey Kluber (10-8, 4.36) for Tampa, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:10 p.m. CDT.
