MILWAUKEE — Ezequiel Durán hit his 15th home run of the season in the third inning on Sunday afternoon at American Family Field, and he doubled home two more runs in the fifth. The Texas Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-4 and snapped a four-game losing streak.
Durán hit 14 home runs in 2023. That was his previous career high. He entered Sunday batting .271/.330/.441 with 70 RBIs in 127 games.
“I feel good. I feel good. I feel blessed and I feel grateful too,” Durán said.
Milwaukee scored twice in the first inning for the third game in a row. Each of the first four batters to face Kumar Rocker reached base. Brice Turang drew a leadoff walk, and Garrett Mitchell, Jake Bauers, and Jackson Chourio followed with singles. Rocker needed 86 pitches to get through 3 innings, and he finished with 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 4 walks, and 7 strikeouts.
“A few things. It was a tough first inning, them getting two runs against Rocker, and then just some long innings after that and went right to the bullpen,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “Alexander was fantastic, kind of kept them at two runs, and then our offense came back. We’ve talked about offensive identity and what that means, and it’s going to take some heart and guts to fight back and to start getting more wins, and that’s exactly what happened today.”
“These guys are working hard to get it right, and it was a really good offensive performance,” Schumaker continued. “So really good job with the bullpen and obviously the offense coming alive.”
Ezequiel Durán’s Home Run And Go-Ahead Double
Texas got on the board in the second. Cody Freeman doubled in his first at-bat and came around to score the Rangers’ first run. Elias Díaz went 2-for-4 with two doubles, a walk, and an RBI.
An inning later, Durán tied the game at 2 with a two-out solo home run that Statcast measured at 410 feet. Two innings after that, with runners on second and third, he bounced a ground-rule double into the left-center-field gap to score both runners and give Texas its first lead of the series. Both hits came off Dustin May, who worked 4 1/3 innings and gave up 6 hits, 4 earned runs, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts. May fell to 6-9.
Four of Texas’ 7 runs scored with two outs. The Rangers went 4-for-12 with runners in scoring position and finished with 6 extra-base hits among their 10 hits.
“I feel like a broken record every time I talk about him. After a win, it feels like he’s involved somehow, either on the defensive side or on the offensive side. Today, huge double with runners on base,” Schumaker explained. “I know he got the home run, but I felt like the double with runners on base is what changed the momentum. Such a big hit at the time. And we kind of added on after that.”
“Zeke, he’s been our most valuable player,” Schumaker added. “He’s played every position at an elite level. And I’m glad he’s carried us for most of the year.”
Durán has appeared at shortstop, third base, second base, left field, right field, center field, and first base this season. He has 3.9 wins above replacement in 2026, per Baseball Reference. He totaled 1.7 across his first four seasons.
“That feels good. That feels good. We’re trying to help the team win every single time, and we’re playing hard every single time too,” Durán explained.
Joc Pederson And Gary Sánchez Homer Late
Joc Pederson homered with two outs in the sixth to push the lead to 5-2. Grant Anderson gave up the homer. Anderson pitched for the Rangers in 2023 and 2024 and has been with Milwaukee since 2025. Jake Burger and Freeman added RBI singles in the seventh to make it 7-2.
Gary Sánchez cut the lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run shot off Jordan Montgomery. It was the 200th home run of Sánchez’s career.
Five Texas relievers covered the final 6 innings. Tyler Alexander followed Rocker with 2 scoreless innings and picked up the win, and Adam Macko, Jakob Junis, and Montgomery each worked an inning. Jacob Latz pitched the ninth for his 27th save in 30 chances. Latz was the Rangers’ only All-Star selection this season.
Texas Rangers Return Home Two Games Out Of A Wild Card Spot
Texas entered Sunday having lost 14 of its previous 17 road games. The Rangers won the opener in Chicago, dropped four in a row, including a 10-4 loss to the White Sox and losses of 6-1 and 5-3 in the first two games in Milwaukee, and then won Sunday.
“It’s such a weird road trip. We won the first one and won the last one, and nothing in the middle,” Schumaker said. “So hopefully we can start a winning streak. Always nice to win the last game. It’s a lot better jumping on a flight after a win, and hopefully it starts something offensively for sure when we get back home.”
“Keep playing hard, keep winning games and keep trusting,” Durán said of the season’s final month.
The Rangers are 67-70 and sit second in the American League West, 2 games behind Houston. They are also 2 games behind Cleveland for the third American League wild card. Texas has 25 games left, and 16 of them are at home.
Texas opens a three-game series against the Athletics on Monday at Globe Life Field. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. CT. Jacob deGrom (9-9, 4.21 ERA) starts for the Rangers, and Gage Jump (6-8, 4.69 ERA) starts for the Athletics.
