ARLINGTON, Texas — Trevor Story hit a go-ahead, three-run home run off Jacob Latz in the eighth inning Thursday night. The Boston Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Texas Rangers, 4-3, at Globe Life Field and kept Texas from its first sweep since June 25-28 in Toronto.
Texas (76-77) had won four straight games to pull into a share of first place in the AL West. With the loss, the Rangers fell one game behind the Houston Astros (77-76), who hold the tiebreaker. They remain two games back of the final AL Wild Card spot.
Entering Thursday, the Rangers were 72-1 when leading in the eighth inning or later, the best record in baseball. Latz had converted his last nine save opportunities dating to Aug. 7. He notched his 30th save in Tuesday’s series opener against Boston, and his 2.00 ERA entering the day ranked eighth in the American League among pitchers with at least 50 innings.
Latz, an All-Star for the first time this season, leads the majors with 13 saves of four outs or more. His 7 saves of six outs or more also lead baseball.
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.”
Jakob Junis opened the eighth by walking Wilyer Abreu. He then hit Willson Contreras on the hand, and Contreras left the game.
Latz came on and struck out Adley Rutschman for the first out. Story, who is from Irving, reached down for Latz’s second straight low curveball, an 80.3 mph pitch, and lined it over the wall in left-center field. It was his fourth home run of the season and his first since May 13.
Trevor Story Has A Hit In 15 Of 16 Games Since Returning From Surgery
Boston placed Story on the 10-day injured list May 16 with a sports hernia that had bothered him since the spring. He had surgery later that month and was transferred to the 60-day IL on June 4. Since returning Aug. 30, Story has a hit in all but one of his 16 games, and he is riding an eight-game hitting streak. He is slashing .327/.339/.473 in September.
The challenges of the year were part of it for Story.
“It meant a lot,” Story said. “Just the challenges of the year and all that, but just trying to be present in the moment to help the team win. And today was a good one, that was fun.”
Story had just missed Latz’s fastball a couple of times earlier in the at-bat.
“I was looking for something just to put in play,” Story explained. “[Latz has] a good fastball and just missed it a couple times, and I felt good about that. Just trying to get something in the zone and get on top of it, and was able to drive one out.”
Story tries to use the outside noise in a way that fits him.
“It’s tough because I’m not really motivated by outside noise or anything,” Story said. “But you hear it, and I try to use it in a way that fits me best. Like we said, that was the point of getting the surgery, to come back and try to be the player that I know I can be, and I’m starting to show that.”
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy said he saw Story change games that way numerous times in the second half of last season.
“He’s been great,” Tracy said. “He’s got a hit in every game but one. That was a hell of an at-bat against a really good pitcher in a really big spot and a huge swing. Obviously needed a win, but all the credit to him.”
“You’re one pitch away in a spot like that, where he can change a game, like we saw it numerous times in the second half of last year,” Tracy continued. “So, like I said, it was a massive swing.”
Walks And A Hit-by-Pitch Set Up Trevor Story’s Go-Ahead Homer
Boston scored its first run in the seventh. Rookie Robby Ahlstrom walked Caleb Durbin and Nate Eaton, the first two batters he faced. Eaton advanced to third on a flyout to deep center field and scored when Roman Anthony grounded into a forceout. Junis relieved Ahlstrom and got out of the inning with Texas ahead, 3-1.
Three of Boston’s four runs reached base on a walk or a hit-by-pitch. Before Ahlstrom, Chase Silseth, acquired from the Los Angeles Angels on July 30, got the last two outs of the sixth in relief of Cody Bradford.
Thursday was a bullpen day for Texas, with Tyler Alexander opening and Bradford following as the bulk pitcher.
“I think early on with Robby walking those couple guys, we had to use Junis to get out of it,” Schumaker explained. “And then asking him to go back out there, just because of where we were at in our kind of bullpen day type of deal. Cody Bradford, I think what gets lost in this, was outstanding. He provided exactly what we’re hoping he’d do. Silseth came in, got a couple big outs in a big spot.”
“We’re hoping that Robby could get the bottom of the order, and a couple walks hurt us,” Schumaker continued. “It forced us to kind of use Junis there and then send him back out. And then we had to use Latz to clean them up. But I think you’re right. I think that the walks ended up hurting us towards the middle innings, ended up scoring some runs.”
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 said. “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.”
Schumaker said Robert Garcia, who has thrown 4 1/3 scoreless innings since coming off the injured list, was unavailable Thursday.
“I thought Silseth has been really good,” Schumaker said. “Junis last night got us out of a big jam. Tyler Alexander has been really good in those kind of middle innings. So just trying to figure out the right kind of recipe to get it into Latz’s hands so I don’t have to use him in the eighth inning.”
“That’s been a little bit of trying to not use Latz in multi-innings or use him in the eighth inning and figure out the ninth later,” Schumaker added. “But the way Garcia was down today, so having just kind of a few guys in the back end, we would have closed with Williams and Monty tonight if Latz could get through that inning.”
Trevor Williams signed with Texas on Sept. 1 after his release by Washington. Jordan Montgomery came off the 60-day injured list Aug. 7 after Tommy John surgery and has pitched out of the bullpen since.
Josh Jung Homers, Cody Bradford Throws 4 1/3 Scoreless Innings in Rangers Loss
Bradford followed Alexander with 4 1/3 shutout innings and struck out the side in the second. He entered 0-5 with a 4.72 ERA, seeking his first major league win since Sept. 18, 2024. Bradford, who grew up in Aledo and pitched at Baylor, missed all of last season after elbow surgery.
Josh Jung hit a solo home run off Sonny Gray in the first inning, his 10th of the season. In the second, Danny Jansen singled in a run and Evan Carter added another on a safety squeeze bunt for a 3-0 lead.
From the third inning on, Texas went 2-for-21 (.095). The Rangers did not have a runner in scoring position after the second.
Gray, 36, entered 17-5 with a 2.76 ERA. He worked 6 1/3 innings, allowed 3 runs on 3 hits, walked 3, and struck out 6, throwing a season-high 102 pitches, 67 for strikes. Before the game, Schumaker said Gray’s sweeper looks like a strike for a long time before it breaks late off the plate.
Gray said the Rangers are fighting for their lives, and that it was good for Boston to experience that.
“[I was] frustrated with the way I went out there for the second inning, but kept it close enough,” Gray said. “We got one, and then Trevor made a great swing to give us the lead there, and that was huge.”
“They’re fighting for their lives over there, and they’re playing well, and it’s good for us to experience that, for sure. … You want to be playing well at the end of the season,” Gray added. “You don’t want to just feel like, ‘just get into this thing.’ So tonight was a good step in that direction.”
Wyatt Olds (2-0) got three outs for the win. Garrett Whitlock pitched the ninth for his fourth save in 8 chances and got Jake Burger to ground into a game-ending double play. Latz fell to 3-3.
Boston (83-70) improved to 8-59 when trailing after seven innings. Texas dropped to 63-2 when leading after seven. The Red Sox hold the second AL Wild Card spot, five games ahead of the Cleveland Guardians, and could clinch a postseason berth this weekend against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Texas Rangers Open Toronto Blue Jays Series Tied For Fourth In AL Wild Card Race
Texas took two of three from Boston. Schumaker would have loved the third, especially this time of year.
“I thought it was a really good series,” Schumaker said. “We would have loved to have gotten that last win, obviously, especially this time of year. Every win, every loss, counts in a different way right now. … But you move on to the next one.”
“That’s the only thing you can do. Every loss hurts right now, but we have a job to do and it’s to try to win however we can tomorrow,” Schumaker noted. “We had a chance to win tonight. We went down with our leverage guys. Now we do whatever we can to try to win tomorrow.”
The Toronto Blue Jays open a three-game series in Arlington on Friday, tied with Texas for fourth place in the AL Wild Card standings. Texas has nine games left.
“I’ll regroup, we’ll all regroup, and we got another series to win,” Latz said. “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.”
Kumar Rocker (5-11, 4.54 ERA) starts Friday for the Rangers against Dylan Cease (11-5, 2.38 ERA). First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network. Cal Quantrill faces José Soriano on Saturday at 6:05 p.m. CT, and Jacob deGrom starts Sunday’s 1:35 p.m. CT finale against a Toronto starter still to be announced.
