Four quiet innings, then the roof came off
For four innings Chase Field had a game. Then Wyatt Langford got hold of one.
The Texas Rangers put six runs on the board in the fifth on Saturday night and beat the Arizona Diamondbacks 6-2, squaring their three-game series in Phoenix. Langford opened the inning with a drive that travelled 435 feet. By the time Arizona escaped the frame, the game had gone.
Langford was not finished. He added a double later on, one of several Texas hitters who kept finding the gaps. Elias Diaz finished with three hits and an RBI. Brandon Nimmo doubled twice and drove in a run.
Try it for $0.99.
Two men back from the injured list
Texas activated Nathan Eovaldi and Josh Jung on Saturday, and both went straight into the game.
Eovaldi had not pitched since August 7. The right-hander worked 2 2/3 innings out of the bullpen and gave up one run, which will do for a first outing in five weeks. He did not factor in the decision.
Jung returned to the lineup and collected two hits and an RBI. For a side that has spent much of the summer patching holes, recovering two regulars on the same afternoon counts for more than the box score shows.
Arizona are running out of room
The defeat lands badly for the Diamondbacks. They sit a game and a half behind the San Diego Padres for the third and final National League wild-card place, and San Diego won again on Saturday, a sixth straight victory, holding that ground.
Arizona now need the finale to avoid dropping a home series to an American League side. In mid-September, these are the games a wild-card chaser is meant to bank. The fifth inning will sting longest: their pitching had kept Texas quiet to that point, and one bad frame wiped all of it out.
Discover the rest of our MLB news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply