The Texas Rangers dropped two of three games to the Arizona Diamondbacks, leaving their playoff chances hanging by a thread.
With the series wrapping up Wednesday at Globe Life Field, the Rangers (61-61) saw both of their final two losses decided by go-ahead home runs in the ninth inning — each delivered by Arizona’s Ketel Marte. The defeats pushed Texas 7.5 games back in the American League West and 4.0 games behind the New York Yankees for the last AL Wild Card spot.
It’s starting to feel like the Rangers’ season is slipping away. As they prepare to face the Toronto Blue Jays, here’s a look at what went right — and what went wrong — against the D-backs.
THE GOOD
1. Bruce Bochy Calls Out the Offense
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy has built his career on publicly standing by his players. It’s part of his managerial DNA — he’s old-school, and while he will hold players accountable, those conversations almost always happen in private. During the Philadelphia series, he was asked, indirectly, if he was the type to “toss the post-game buffet.” Bochy laughed, saying he preferred a more personal, one-on-one approach.
That’s why his postgame comments on Tuesday, after Texas managed just four hits in a loss to Arizona, were so striking to those who’ve covered his three seasons in Arlington. Public criticism from Bochy is rare, and this was about as close as he gets. The remarks showed a level of frustration with the lineup that had clearly been building for some time but had never been expressed so bluntly.
“We’ve got to swing the bats,” Bochy said after the game. “I mean, come on. That was one of our worst games. We were bad tonight.”
Oddly enough, that might be a good thing. If Bochy is willing to break from his usual restraint, it may be because he knows this could be the last card left to play to get his team back on track. It’s no guarantee, but sometimes even a subtle public wake-up call from a manager can make all the difference.
2. Momentary Glory
For the second Monday night in a row, the Rangers played the role of the comeback team. Last week against the New York Yankees, Joc Pederson’s pinch-hit homer tied the game in the ninth, and Josh Jung followed with a walk-off three-run shot in the 10th.
Tuesday’s version was strikingly similar. Rowdy Tellez came off the bench in the ninth with Texas down by a run and launched a home run to tie things up. In the 10th, it wasn’t a homer, but an RBI single down the left-field line by Jake Burger did the job.
The celebration was euphoric. The win snapped a four-game losing streak and offered a glimmer that the Rangers’ offense might be finding its rhythm again. Of course, watching the next two games quickly proved otherwise.
3. Leiter’s Progress
The Rangers are counting on Jack Leiter to be a mainstay in their rotation, which makes outings like Tuesday’s encouraging. He’s making progress, albeit slower than the team might prefer, but the steps are there.
On Tuesday, Leiter managed to curb the walks that have been his biggest professional challenge, issuing just two free passes after giving up four against the Yankees last week.
He lasted only five innings, but that’s an improvement — in his previous two starts, he hadn’t even reached the fifth. Against New York, he was done after 3.1 innings due to the walks, and the start before that lasted 4.1 innings.
Leiter surrendered just one hit — a solo homer by Arizona’s Blaze Alexander in the third — but still, one hit is progress. The next step is for Leiter to consistently work into the sixth inning or beyond, which will require more efficient innings and better command of the strike zone.
THE NOT SO GOOD
1. Robert Garcia’s … Whatever That Was
Baseball coaches have long taught that sometimes it’s best to give up on a play—usually when a fielder misplays the ball so badly that making the out is nearly impossible.
Rangers reliever Robert Garcia, however, attempted a play on Tuesday that defied that conventional wisdom in a way that’s almost hard to believe.
Unfortunately, the risk didn’t pay off. Garcia allowed a game-tying run during his inning and blew a save for the sixth time this season. As Rangers Sports Network’s Dave Raymond points out, the mounting blown saves highlight a key offseason and trade deadline misstep: Texas never secured a true closer.
2. The New Bullpen Tools Falter
Danny Coulombe and Phil Maton have been a welcome boost to the Rangers’ bullpen since joining at the trade deadline. But this series reminded everyone that even reliable relievers can have rough nights. In back-to-back games, each gave up a go-ahead homer in the ninth inning.
Coulombe went first. On Tuesday, he couldn’t fool Arizona’s Ketel Marte with an 80 mph sweeper, and Marte sent it over the fence — the first home run Coulombe had allowed all season.
Then came Wednesday, when Maton gave up a three-run, ninth-inning homer… also to Marte. Clearly, Marte has the Rangers’ number.
Both relievers have been strong overall since arriving in Texas. Slumps happen; it’s just that the timing here could hardly have been worse.
3. Nathan Eovaldi’s Awful Outing
Rangers fans are still trying to wrap their heads around this one. The American League’s July pitcher of the month kicked off the series with a puzzling performance. He gave up eight hits, struck out just three, and walked one over five innings, allowing multiple home runs for the first time in a year — and, curiously, the last time it happened was also against Arizona.
How unusual was this for Evo? The eight hits were a season high, as were the five earned runs he allowed. He hadn’t surrendered multiple earned runs in a game since late June, and his three strikeouts were the fewest he’d recorded since that same start. Rarely does a Rangers starter follow a poor outing with the offense stepping in to bail him out, but that’s exactly what happened here.
