ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said the way his club came back from a 6-1 deficit on Friday night argues against the idea that it cannot recover when it falls behind.
Texas scored five runs over the final three innings and lost 7-6 to the Tampa Bay Rays at Globe Life Field.
“I think the fight back tonight would suggest that’s not how they feel. A 6-1 lead against one of the best teams in all of Major League Baseball and to come back within one late in the game would say just the opposite,” Schumaker said. “And maybe that has been, the numbers suggest that, but you wouldn’t know it by the way they fought back tonight. And again, they came within one run against one of their All-Star closer coming in the game, we felt really good about where our lineup was and getting one, just couldn’t keep it to one, unfortunately, and it ended up being the game winning run, when they added one more run.”
How The Texas Rangers Got Back Within One
Elias Díaz hit the first Texas grand slam of the season in the seventh inning off Garrett Cleavinger to cut the lead to 6-5. Nick Martinez had left with one out and two on, and Cleavinger walked Cody Freeman before Elias Díaz lined a 1-2 slider just over the left field fence.
Elias Díaz drove in 5 runs. He added a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning off Tyler Wells that made it 7-6 and put the tying run at third with two outs. Justin Foscue popped out to end the game.
Bryan Baker, the major league saves leader, walked the first two batters of the ninth and left the game with a trainer. Baker believed the issue was dehydration. Wells replaced him and recorded his sixth save.
Junior Caminero singled home a run in the ninth to make it 7-5 before the Texas rally.
How The Deficit Got To Five
Ezequiel Duran led off the second inning with a home run for a 1-0 lead. Jonathan Aranda answered with a solo shot in the third, and Richie Palacios homered with two outs in the fourth.
Yandy Díaz, Aranda, and Caminero opened the fifth with three consecutive opposite-field doubles. Victor Mesa Jr. blooped a single to shallow center, Caminero scored while Mesa took second on an error by Evan Carter, and Mesa later scored during a rundown for a 6-1 lead.
Kumar Rocker fell to 5-11 after allowing 6 runs, 5 of them earned, on 9 hits over 5 innings. He entered in the third behind openers Trevor Williams and Robby Ahlstrom.
Texas had won four of five entering Friday, including a 6-0 win in the series opener on Thursday behind 7 scoreless innings from Cal Quantrill.
The Rangers have scored 578 runs this season and carry a .243 team batting average, which ranks 16th in the majors. They have hit 157 home runs.
Kevin Kelly pitched a perfect eighth inning for Tampa Bay. Martinez improved to 14-4 and tied Drew Rasmussen for the Tampa Bay lead in wins.
Tampa Bay had lost 10 straight road games against Texas before Friday. Texas fell to 70-72 and matched its largest deficit in the American League West this season at 3 games after Houston beat Arizona 3-1. Tampa Bay improved to 84-57. Rasmussen (14-5, 2.95 ERA) is scheduled to start for Tampa Bay on Saturday against Rangers right-hander Jacob deGrom (10-9, 4.00) at Globe Life Field.
