Seager’s Homer Added Room to a Quiet Rangers Finish

For five innings the Rangers led by one run. Corey Seager doubled that margin with a sixth-inning homer Thursday, giving Texas the final run of its 3-1 win over the New York Mets.

Seager’s solo homer to right field made the score 3-1 and stood as the final scoring play at Globe Life Field. Texas followed with two hits, put two runners aboard in the eighth and added no more runs. The extra run was valuable insurance, but the game’s finish showed why it should be described as a cushion rather than a rescue.

All the Rangers’ runs came on two homers. Justin Foscue singled in the first, Seager struck out, and Josh Jung put Texas ahead with a two-run shot. Jung also doubled in the fourth and finished 3-for-3 with a walk and seven total bases. Seager’s sixth-inning drive, his 19th homer, completed the scoring.

Then came the quieter part.

Jung walked immediately after Seager’s homer. Jake Burger reached on a force play. After Nimmo struck out, Wyatt Langford singled to put Rangers at first and second. The inning ended when Burger was picked off and caught stealing third. Texas had added the run that mattered to the scoreboard, then failed to convert the traffic that followed it.

The eighth offered another example. Evan Carter walked, and Jung singled after Seager struck out. Nicky Lopez entered as a pinch-runner for Jung, but Burger grounded into a double play.

Those were Texas’ two post-homer hits, and neither led to another run. The Rangers finished with four runners left on base, a modest total in a three-run game but enough to make the final three innings feel more unfinished than comfortable.

The pitching kept that incompleteness from becoming a problem.

Kumar Rocker worked five innings, allowing three hits and one earned run while walking two and striking out four. His third inning was the important escape. Nick Morabito doubled, Francisco Lindor struck out, Juan Soto was intentionally walked, and Bo Bichette grounded into a double play. New York had an extra-base hit and Soto on base, yet the inning ended without another run.

Rocker also finished the fifth without allowing a baserunner. His outing was not overpowering, but it gave Texas a lead to protect and limited the Mets to the one run they scored in the opening inning, when Lindor doubled and Carson Benge singled him home.

Robert Garcia handled the sixth after Rocker departed, and his three-batter sequence was especially tidy: Lindor flew out, Soto popped up in foul territory and Bichette flew out. Garcia used 10 pitches and handed the game to the later relief innings with the Mets still searching for a second run.

Tyler Alexander’s seventh was less immaculate. Brett Baty singled, putting the tying run at the plate, and then Marcus Semien and A.J. Ewing each made outs on fly balls.

Alexander permitted the only Mets hit after the sixth-inning homer, but he did not permit the inning to grow. Chase Silseth followed in the eighth by striking out Luis Torrens and Morabito before Lindor flew out. The Mets’ final eight batters after Baty’s single were retired.

Jordan Montgomery made the ninth almost comically brief. He needed eight pitches to retire Soto on a groundout, Bichette on another groundout and Benge on a swinging strikeout. There was no walk, no baserunner and no need for the Rangers to test the limits of their two-run advantage.

Garcia, Alexander, Silseth and Montgomery combined for four scoreless innings, one hit, no walks and three strikeouts. That support made the extra run sufficient. His swing changed 2-1 to 3-1 and gave Texas room while the offense went quiet. The bullpen then made sure the Rangers never had to find out how much room they truly needed.

Sources

Official game data

Official game box score