Rangers blow 6-1 lead, lose 7-6 to Rays
Texas led by 5 in the 9th before falling 7-6 to Tampa Bay, a loss that let Houston push its AL West lead to 3 games while the Rangers' wild card cushion shrank to 2 games back with 20 to play.
Díaz's grand slam falls short
On September 4, the Rangers built a 6-1 lead on Ezequiel Duran's homer and Elias Díaz's grand slam — Díaz's blast came on a 2-strike pitch and was the club's first slam of the season, per Evan Grant of The Dallas Morning News — only for Tampa Bay to come all the way back and win 7-6. Kumar Rocker's start went the other way, 5 earned runs on 9 hits over 5 innings.
Rays6-0Rays6-7It reversed the shape of the series opener: Texas had shut the Rays out 6-0 on September 3 behind a clean outing before Wednesday night's collapse, part of a stretch that leaves the Rangers 3-2 in their last 5.
Jake Burger and Evan Carter drew back-to-back walks to open the ninth, forcing Tampa Bay to pull reliever Bryan Baker, per Evan Grant — the best look Texas got at a comeback — but the rally died there and the Rangers fell to 70-72.
Houston's grip on the West tightens
The loss landed the same night Houston beat Arizona 3-1, extending the Astros' American League West lead to 3 games with the season tiebreaker already in hand, per Brian McTaggart — Houston's 3rd straight win and 7th in its last 9, pushing the club to a season-high 4 games over .500 at 73-69.
Texas' path now runs through the wild card. The Rangers sit 2.0 games back of the third and final spot, held by Cleveland, with an elimination number of 18 — matching Evan Grant's read that Texas trails the West by 3 games and the wild card by 2 with 20 left to play.
The Blue Jays (1.0 back) and Orioles (3.0 back) are both packed into that same gap, which means the next 3 weeks likely come down to games directly in front of Texas rather than ground made up on Houston.
Upcoming
Jacob deGrom takes the mound as the Rangers host the Rays tonight, coming off a scoreless outing against the Athletics on August 31 — 7 innings, 8 strikeouts, no walks, 1 hit — in a start that improved him to 10-9. Tampa Bay counters with Drew Rasmussen, 14-5 with a 2.95 ERA, who allowed 2 earned runs over 6 innings against San Diego on August 30.
Neither side is favored in the market, and the total points to a low-scoring game — a read that lines up with the two starters involved. If deGrom pitches to his last outing and Rasmussen holds to his season number, this is a game Texas needs its offense to scrape together instead of overpower.