PHOENIX — The Texas Rangers won a road series for the first time since July 1, beating the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 on Sunday afternoon at Chase Field. Corey Seager homered eight pitches into the game and finished with 3 hits, 3 RBIs, and 2 runs scored.
Texas had dropped eight road series in a row before taking two of three in Phoenix. That stretch was the club’s longest since July 2 to Aug. 26, 2021, and the Rangers have never lost nine straight road sets in the same season, MLB.com’s Kennedi Landry reported. Their previous road series win came over back-to-back sets in Toronto and Cleveland from June 25 to July 1. Sunday was also the first rubber match Texas has won away from Globe Life Field since June 11 in Kansas City.
At 74-76, the Rangers sit one game behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and two games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the third American League wild card. Houston was swept in Tampa Bay over the weekend, Landry reported. Arizona, 79-71 under manager Torey Lovullo, is third in the National League West.
Corey Seager Homers 458 Feet Off Eduardo Rodríguez
Justin Foscue opened the game with a single. Seager pulled the first pitch he saw from Eduardo Rodríguez over the pool deck in right-center for a two-run home run that Statcast measured at 458 feet. It was his 18th of the season and his fourth in seven games.
Seager called it a big series win for a Texas offense that went 5-for-10 with runners in scoring position after going 1-for-8 in Friday’s 9-1 loss.
“It was nice to put a good swing on it,” Seager said. “But it was just a good overall day up and down the lineup. We put a lot of good swings on balls, put a lot of pressure on him, and that’s what you’re looking for at this point in the year.”
Arizona committed two errors in the fifth and Texas turned them into three unearned runs. Foscue reached on Nolan Arenado‘s fielding error, Seager singled to center, and Josh Jung lined a single past left fielder Lars Nootbaar that scored two and put Jung on second. Brandon Nimmo singled Jung home for a 5-1 lead. Danny Jansen doubled in a run in the sixth and Seager singled in another for 7-1.
Rodríguez fell to 15-6, charged with 6 runs, 3 of them earned, over 5.1 innings.
Seager said the Rangers need to win as many series as they can with 12 games left.
“That’s a big series win for us,” Seager explained. “So hopefully we can build off that and keep playing good at home.”
Cal Quantrill Exits With Back Tightness In The Seventh
Cal Quantrill threw 70 pitches over six innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 earned runs with no walks and 4 strikeouts. Gabriel Moreno‘s leadoff homer in the fourth was the only run against him until Geraldo Perdomo opened the seventh with a single. Quantrill is 9-5 and has won five of his last six starts with a 1.89 ERA.
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said he and Quantrill agreed after the fifth inning to go hitter to hitter.
“He was outstanding,” Schumaker said. “I mean, Cal was on the attack, gave up one run through six innings, whatever it was. And then after the fifth, he had back tightness and it was pretty significant back tightness. And so we agreed to go kind of hitter to hitter or inning to inning and hitter to hitter and keep communicating throughout as soon as the seventh inning started. And we talked about it. And if one guy got on, we’re going to kind of go to the bullpen. And that’s what happened.”
Tyler Alexander gave up Arenado’s three-run homer off the left-field foul pole in the seventh, cutting the lead to 7-4. Arenado led off the ninth with a double against Jacob Latz, Tim Tawa doubled him in, and Jordan Lawlar doubled off the left-field fence with one out to make it 7-6. Latz stranded the tying run at second base for his save.
Latz, a left-hander, was the Rangers’ only representative at the 2026 All-Star Game in Philadelphia and took over the closer’s job early in the season after losing the fifth starter competition in spring training.
Schumaker called it a big road win and a much needed one.
“I’ve been in this place a number of times as a player and as a coach and now manager,” Schumaker explained, “and you never know what’s going to happen because it’s a tough team to face. Torey Lovullo has those guys playing hard through nine innings, so you knew they were going to fight to the last out. Luckily, we had our all-star closer out there and felt pretty confident we were going to get that third out.”
Twelve games remain on the schedule. The Rangers open a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday at Globe Life Field, with first pitch at 7:05 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network. The Toronto Blue Jays follow for three games starting Friday.
