The Texas Rangers are finding different ways to fight through challenges and now they’re in position to win a road series for the second time in less than a week.
They’ll take on the Baltimore Orioles in the rubber game of the three-game series Wednesday night.
“It’s so important to keep fighting,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said.
The Rangers recovered after squandering a late-game lead, winning 6-5 in 10 innings on Tuesday night.
“A lot of good things happened,” Bochy said. “We took a pretty big hit there.”
Some of the recent success has come because of intangibles, not necessarily big slugging performances or easily defined methods.
“We did it with speed,” Bochy said. “Stealing bases, going on contact. Those guys really played hard.”
The Orioles have lost three of their last four games. In two of those games, they’ve reached the late innings without a hit.
Yet they’re still capable of bursts of offense, like the three consecutive home runs in the seventh inning on Tuesday night. They wiped out a 4-0 deficit and took the lead before losing.
“I’ve said it a million times, I like our chances with our offense, I think we’ve got a great offense,” Baltimore first baseman Ryan O’Hearn said. “Yeah, very frustrating. That felt good to get that momentum swing, big inning in the (seventh) there, it felt like, ‘All right, here we go, we’re going to steal this one.’ But we didn’t.”
All four Baltimore hits came in the same inning.
“I thought we got ourselves into trouble a little bit with our right-handed hitters kind of chasing out of the zone,” Orioles interim manager Tony Mansolino said. “If you kind of go back and look at the game, we probably should have had four or five walks from our right-handed guys.”
Right-hander Jacob deGrom (7-2, 2.24 ERA) will be the starting pitcher for the Rangers on Wednesday. He’s 3-0 with a 1.80 ERA in four starts this month, when he has recorded 25 strikeouts with four walks in 25 innings.
Texas has won eight of deGrom’s last 10 starts. His career mark against the Orioles is 3-0 with a 1.31 ERA in 20 2/3 innings over three starts.
The Orioles have altered their pitching plans, pushing back Tomoyuki Sugano’s scheduled start until later in the week.
That means rookie right-hander Brandon Young (0-1, 6.23) is expected to be on the mound at some point in the series finale. Mansolino said that could be in a starter’s role or used as a bulk reliever if the Orioles opt to go with an opener for the first inning or two.
“We can start him,” Mansolino said. “We can do an opener. We’re still talking through all that. More than likely, we’ll see him (Wednesday).”
Young has been with the team on the taxi squad, last throwing in a game Friday for Triple-A Norfolk.
There’s also the likelihood that infielder Jordan Westburg will be in the Baltimore lineup. He has missed a few days with a sprained finger.
“I think all indications are that we’ll probably see him (Wednesday),” Mansolino said.
Both teams are off Thursday, so they could delve a little deeper into their bullpens if the needs arise.