ARLINGTON, Texas — Five Texas Rangers relievers covered 7 2/3 innings in a 6-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday night at Globe Life Field. Rangers relievers have a 1.84 ERA over the homestand, allowing 6 earned runs across 29 1/3 innings, Kennedi Landry of MLB.com reported.
The bullpen has earned three of the club’s four wins on the homestand. Jordan Montgomery came in with one out in the second inning Saturday and threw 3 2/3 hitless innings, retiring 11 of the 12 batters he faced.
“[They are] literally saving us,” Josh Jung said. “Especially for Monty to come out in that spot and be ready to go and throw up zeros. That was incredible, especially against another team in the playoff race? Just shows Monty’s resilience to come in whenever you need him.”
Texas Rangers Bullpen Covers 7 2/3 Innings Against Toronto Blue Jays
Montgomery threw 51 pitches, walked 1, and struck out 1 before handing a 3-0 lead to Nathan Eovaldi in the sixth. Eovaldi, who had thrown 46 pitches over 4 scoreless innings against Boston on Wednesday, allowed 1 run on a two-out single by Alejandro Kirk.
Robert Garcia gave up a pinch-hit solo home run to Davis Schneider in the seventh. Chase Silseth pitched around 2 hits in a scoreless eighth, and Jacob Latz retired the side in the ninth. Toronto finished with 6 hits, none of them against Montgomery.
Wyatt Langford On Texas Rangers Relievers Carrying The Team
Cal Quantrill left after facing 4 batters with right lat tightness and will have an MRI on Sunday. He entered the night 9-5 with 81 strikeouts over 31 appearances, 14 of them starts, and the Rangers were expecting six or seven innings from him, Wyatt Langford said.
“A lot,” Langford said. “It’s really tough. Obviously, Cal’s been one of our better pitchers all year. So we’re all expecting him to go six or seven innings, pitch one, two runs, and then that happens. And then Monty’s huge to be able to come out. I think he put up zero runs. So they’re super awesome. They’ve been great all year and really carrying it lately.”
Texas (78-77) is one game ahead of the Houston Astros in the American League West with seven games left, and Houston holds the tiebreaker. Jacob deGrom (11-9, 3.79 ERA) starts Sunday’s series finale at 1:35 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network.
