The Texas Rangers have had no shortage of issues this season, but two of the most persistent have been their struggles to come back from deficits and their poor performance against left-handed pitching.
On Monday night, they flipped the script on both.
With a strong early push, one of their best showings of the season against an elite lefty in Max Fried, and a pair of clutch home runs from hitters badly in need of big moments, the Rangers pulled off an 8-5 walkoff win over the New York Yankees at Globe Life Field. The game ended in the 10th inning with designated hitter Josh Jung blasting a three-run shot off Yankees reliever Jake Bird.
Jung’s walkoff capped off a comeback sparked an inning earlier when Joc Pederson, pinch-hitting in the ninth, tied the game with a solo homer off closer Devin Williams. The team’s ability to overcome challenges that have plagued them most of the year laid the groundwork for those late-game fireworks.
“They were probably running on fumes today after the late flight from Seattle,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said, “but they hung in there.”
Technically, they didn’t — at least not at first. The Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first two innings off Patrick Corbin, who allowed a flurry of hits and walks that had the Rangers staring down a deficit they had yet to overcome all season.
But in the bottom of the second, Texas struck back. Wyatt Langford doubled and scored on a single from Josh Smith to cut into the lead. Ezequiel Duran — in the lineup mostly because of his theoretical success vs. lefties despite a .156 average — ripped a first-pitch single that tied the game. Jonah Heim, who singled between Smith and Duran, came home on a wild pickoff throw from Fried to give Texas a 4-3 lead.
That erased three runs — the largest comeback the Rangers have completed in a win this year. Before that, they had only come back from two-run deficits twice, and their .609 OPS when trailing ranked second-worst in MLB.
“We haven’t really been the comeback team this year,” Pederson admitted. “But tonight, we really pulled it together.”
The four runs scored off Fried matched the most he’s allowed in any outing this season and tied for the second-most Texas has scored against a lefty starter in 2024.
In total, the Rangers tallied eight hits and three walks before Fried exited in the sixth. It marked just the second time since May 30 that they scored four or more runs against a left-handed starter. They now sit at 10-18 in those matchups, with a .628 OPS — among the league’s worst — versus left-handers.
“We made him work,” Jung said of Fried. “We just stacked up good at-bats and forced them to make plays. That’s a really good pitcher, and we got four off him. That’s saying something.”
