ARLINGTON — The bad news is that the Texas Rangers are no longer a winning team.
The good news is that they are still a first-place team.
The Rangers ran out of gas in a 7-2 loss vs. the Toronto Blue Jays at Globe Life Field but remain a playoff team with six games left to play in the regular season. Their 78-78 record still leads the Houston Astros — who were swept at home by the Atlanta Braves this weekend — by one game in the AL West as the season’s final week begins.
It was the Rangers’ collective array of pitchers — who have scaled hurdles and leapt through hoops on this homestand — that gave out.
Rangers right-handed pitcher Jacob deGrom lacked his signature command and couldn’t escape the fifth inning. He allowed one run in the first on a walk, a single and a sacrifice fly from the top of the Blue Jay’s lineup. He allowed a second run in the third on a single from right fielder Nathan Lukes and a double from designated hitter Sean Keys. He allowed a third run in the fifth when a leadoff walk from center fielder Brett Bateman, a single from left fielder Myles Straw and a single from Kazuma Okamoto erased the potential of a shutdown inning after the Rangers scored in the top half of that frame.
The 37-year-old walked Keys on six pitches after Okamoto’s single to load the bases before he was replaced by left-handed pitcher Robert Garcia with only one out in the frame. He got pinch hitter Charles McAdoo to hit into an inning-ending double play on a first-pitch changeup, and in the top of the seventh inning, he got second baseman Ernie Clement to do the same.
Those who followed Garcia weren’t as sharp. In the seventh inning, left-handed pitcher Tyler Alexander allowed a Bateman double, a Straw walk and a Lukes single that gave the Blue Jays a 4-2 lead. Alexander was replaced by right-handed pitcher Chase Silseth, who recorded two outs before a McAdoo double drove in two more runs. Silseth was replaced by left-handed pitcher Adam Macko, who allowed another run to score on shortstop Andrés Giménez’s single.
The Rangers found success against quality starters this homestand but were stymied by right-handed pitcher Spencer Miles (who allowed only two hits in three innings as a psuedo opener) before the Blue Jays turned to their bullpen. In the fourth inning, against right-handed pitcher Spencer Arrighetti, first baseman Jake Burger tied the game with a two-run home run into the visitor’s bullpen. Burger has hit a team-high 27 home run this season, and of those, 13 have either given the Rangers a lead or tied the game.