WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Wyatt Langford went 3-for-4 and hit the home run that put the Texas Rangers in front Saturday night in a 5-3 win over the Athletics at Sutter Health Park.
With Corey Seager on base in the sixth inning, Langford drove a two-run homer to left-center for a 4-3 lead. Texas had scored only 7 runs during the four-game losing streak that ended Saturday.
“Yeah, it feels really good,” Langford told Rangers Sports Network. “A little bit of a losing streak there, but coming out here trying to win every day, felt good to get this one.”
Rangers manager Skip Schumaker had seen the frustration building for Langford during the skid, but not any change in the work behind it.
“Wyatt’s been fighting,” Schumaker said. “I mean, you could see the frustration in the last few games. He’s such a hard worker, and you knew he was going to come through eventually. Hard work equals good luck, and I felt like he was deserving of some good luck here soon.”
Langford had already singled in the first inning before delivering the biggest swing of the night.
“The first hit of his day in the first inning kind of set the tone, and then obviously the big home run,” Schumaker continued. “That was huge.”
The victory moved Texas to 61-63.
Wyatt Langford Delivers Go-Ahead Homer for Texas Rangers
Texas trailed 3-0 before Nicky Lopez drove in the Rangers’ first run in the fifth. With Jake Burger on base, Schumaker had Austin Wynns bunt him over before Lopez brought him home.
The Rangers were down 3-0 at the time, but Schumaker wanted a run on the board against J.T. Ginn.
“Yeah, pretty unconventional,” Schumaker said. “Their pitcher has a really good sinker, and we needed to get him over. We needed to get a run on the board, get some momentum back on our side.”
Schumaker said the bottom of the order did its job by getting Texas back to the top of the lineup.
“But bottom of the order is supposed to, you know, get some runs or get some people on base for the top of the order to come back up, and they did exactly that,” Schumaker continued.
Seager made it 3-2 in the sixth. Langford followed with Seager aboard and nobody out, sending Ginn’s pitch 421 feet to left-center at 105.1 mph. The ball carried a 35-degree launch angle.
The homer was Langford’s 14th of the season and flipped the score to 4-3.
Texas went 3-for-6 with runners in scoring position Saturday after finishing 1-for-11 in those spots over the previous two games.
“It’s awesome,” Langford explained. “Obviously we’ve been struggling a little bit to score some runs. So being able to create runs like that, that’s just how it works as baseball. You scratch for one run and then you get another one on a base hit. That’s kind of how it works. So it’s super cool to see and that’s how you get it going.”
Langford came in batting .249 with 13 home runs and 31 RBI after going 0-for-4 with a walk and a stolen base Friday. His 3 hits Saturday pushed the average to .256, while the homer gave him 14 on the year and 33 RBI.
Wyatt Langford Believes Texas Rangers’ Best Baseball Is Ahead
Saturday moved Texas to 61-63. The Rangers came into the game three games behind the final American League wild-card spot despite losing four straight, all against AL West teams.
Three of those losses came against the Los Angeles Angels in Anaheim before the Athletics won Friday’s opener 8-3.
Langford said the Rangers do not believe they have reached their best stretch yet.
“It’s great,” Langford said. “We feel like we haven’t really played our best baseball, and for us to be in this position, it’s awesome, because we still feel like the best is ahead of us. Got guys coming back, guys heating up. So it feels really good.”
Jacob deGrom has yet to be cleared from the right triceps issue that ended his Thursday start against the Angels after 2 innings. Jack Leiter, meanwhile, gave up 1 hit and 1 walk with 3 strikeouts over 2 2/3 scoreless innings for Triple-A Round Rock on Thursday. Jakob Junis returned from the 15-day injured list Saturday and threw a scoreless seventh.
Up Next
Sunday’s series finale at Sutter Health Park begins at 3:05 p.m. CT.
