ARLINGTON, Texas — Jacob Latz entered Thursday night having converted his last nine save opportunities, dating to Aug. 7. In the eighth inning, Trevor Story hit a go-ahead, three-run home run off him, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3, at Globe Life Field.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Latz was available for one inning Thursday, not two, and the plan was to use him in a dirty inning if Texas needed one.
“I take my chances with Jacob Latz any day of the week,” Schumaker said. “I’ll take Jacob Latz in leverage all day long. We went down with him, and I’ll take my shot with him any day of the week.”
The 4-3 loss dropped Texas (76-77) one game behind the Houston Astros in the AL West. Houston holds the tiebreaker.
Latz leads the majors with 13 saves of four outs or more. His 7 saves of six outs or more also lead baseball. On Tuesday, he got the final 5 outs of a 4-2 win over Boston for his 30th save in 33 chances, striking out a pinch-hitter with the bases loaded to end the eighth.
Latz was the American League Reliever of the Month in June and was the Rangers’ lone All-Star this season. His 2.00 ERA entering Thursday ranked eighth in the AL among pitchers with at least 50 innings.
Skip Schumaker Explains Why Jacob Latz Was Limited To One Inning
Jakob Junis opened the eighth by walking Wilyer Abreu. He then hit Willson Contreras on the hand. Latz came on and struck out Adley Rutschman before Story lined an 80.3 mph curveball over the wall in left-center field.
Schumaker said Junis had not thrown many pitches getting out of the seventh, so the Rangers sent him back out with a two-run lead.
“Latz did a good job against Rutschman and unfortunately gave up a home run,” Schumaker explained. “But [I’ve] said it before, if we were going to lose, I’d rather lose with our best guys. And we did, and that’s okay. That’s part of the game.”
On Wednesday night, Schumaker did not have Latz or Robert Garcia available, and Nathan Eovaldi covered the final 4 innings of a 7-3 win. Garcia, who has thrown 4 1/3 scoreless innings since coming off the injured list, was unavailable again Thursday. Schumaker said Texas would have closed with Trevor Williams or Jordan Montgomery if Latz had gotten through the eighth.
Jacob Latz Says Texas Rangers Are ‘Still Right There’ With Nine Games Left
The Rangers have been talking for a while about what is in front of them.
“We’re at the right time here,” Latz said Tuesday. “We know what’s in front of us. We’ve been saying that for a while, and it’s crunch time, and we’re up for the challenge.”
Texas is tied with the Toronto Blue Jays for fourth place in the AL Wild Card standings, two games back of the final spot. Stacking series wins is the job now.
“I’ll regroup, we’ll all regroup, and we got another series to win,” Latz explained. “We’ve gotta keep stacking series wins and wins in general. We’ve got nine games. We’re still right there. We know what we need to do.”
Toronto opens a three-game series at Globe Life Field on Friday at 7:05 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network. Kumar Rocker (5-11, 4.54 ERA) faces Dylan Cease (11-5, 2.38 ERA).
