ARLINGTON — It wasn’t due to a lack of opportunity or ingenuity. 

The Rangers created ample chances to score, leaned into their rediscovered love of small ball and smoked their fair share of hard hits around the yard Sunday afternoon at Globe Life Field. The result, a 2-1 loss that secured a series loss and a .500 record, reflects a lack of execution to capitalize on what was a decent process. 

They finished 1 for 9 with runners in scoring position, stranded 11 runners, left the bases loaded in the sixth inning, failed to score after a leadoff hit or walk on five occasions and struck out eight times with a runner on base. 

“We had traffic all day long, bases loaded no outs, just had a tough time putting the ball in play at the end,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “That’s kind of the story.”

In the second inning, with runners on second and third base and two outs, catcher Danny Jansen struck out on four pitches against right-hander JT Ginn. In the fourth, with runners on first and second and two outs, Jansen popped out to third baseman third baseman Darell Hernaiz on two pitches. In the sixth, after third baseman Josh Jung led off with a double against left-hander Jacob Lopez, center fielder Evan Carter laid down a bunt between the first base line and the mound. Lopez fielded it, made an errant throw to first base and allowed Jung to score from second. Two at-bats later, after first baseman Jake Burger walked, second baseman Josh Smith squared up on another bunt single to load the bases with nobody out. 

The trio of Jansen (strikeout), pinch hitter Sam Haggerty (strikeout) and right fielder Brandon Nimmo (whose 95.4 mph lineout was one of eight hard-hit outs that the Rangers carded) then squandered the best opportunity that the Rangers had to tie the score or take the lead. Jansen has close to a league-average contact rate but struck out three times with a runner on base. Haggerty, left in to face a right-handed hitter in part because his speed makes him a threat to beat out double plays on contact, also struck out with a runner on base in the eighth inning. 

“We had guys bunt at the right time, put the bunt down in the right spots, and were safe both time,” Schumaker said. “We had the right guys up. [Jansen] is contact-oriented and knows the strike zone. So is [Haggerty]. That’s what you want with runners in scoring position. You don’t want the big swing and miss. Unfortunately their guys did a really good job of punching guys out at times in a big spot. The goal, with bases loaded and nobody out, is to put it in play and at least get one. We just didn’t do that tonight.”

Those instances don’t include the two double plays that the Rangers hit into in the first and third innings or the leadoff runners that they failed to advance in the seventh and eighth. The Rangers have been effectively league average with runners in scoring position this season (their .248 batting average in those situations ranks 17th, their .743 OPS ranks 13th, and both are improvements compared to last season’s metrics in the same circumstances), but in their two losses to the Athletics this series, they were unable “to put the ball in play” as Schumaker said after Sunday’s loss. The Rangers combined for all of two hits with runners in scoring position between Friday’s loss and Sunday’s. 

“It’s going to happen at some point,” Schumaker said. “There’s too good of players in the lineup for them not to come through.”

So long as the opportunities persist. 

“You just, as a group, want to try and keep getting in those situations,” Nimmo said, “so that eventually you do come through.”