Aside from Jonah Heim’s 12th home run this season and a decent outing by the Rangers pitching staff, Texas left the Big Apple with little to write home about, falling to the Mets 4-1 on Sunday ahead of an Independence Day outing in Baltimore on the Fourth.
Heim came to the plate to lead off the third with his team trailing by a 1-0 margin. The left-handed-hitting catcher swatted a 93.2 mph four-seam fastball nearly 400 feet deep into right field. Heim’s homer knotted the contest 1-1 but was the only offensive pressure Texas placed on the Mets on the day.
Jon Gray got the starting nod for the Rangers and worked his way deep into the sixth inning before reaching 102 pitches and getting the hook with one out left in the frame. Gray’s day penciled out at three earned runs on six hits with one walk and seven strikeouts.
Gray was able to keep the Mets bats silent for most of his outing aside from a three-run fourth inning in which his batterymate – Heim – had a throwing error that opened the door to the Mets rally.
Brett Martin relieved Gray and got his teammate out of a two-out jam with a runner on second by getting Luis Guillorme to ground out, closing out the sixth. José Leclerc pitched the final two frames for the Rangers, allowing a lone hit while walking none and fanning five.
Texas batted a shoddy .212 as a team on the day and combined to bat 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Heim’s homerun gives him the American League lead for long-balls by a catcher, one ahead of the Royal’s Salvador Perez with 11. Perez holds the MLB record for home runs in a season when he belted 48 last season, breaking Hall of Fame catcher Jonny Bench’s record of 46 set in 1970.
The Rangers will now head south to Baltimore for a three-game series, with game one scheduled for July 4 at 1:05 p.m. EDT at Camden Yards. Probable pitchers for the contest are Dane Dunning (1-6, 4.09) for Texas and Dean Kremer (2-1, 1.29) for the O’s.
The first 15,000 fans through the gates at the contest receive a complimentary Hot Dog Race T-Shirt.
