Texas’ Thin Lead Couldn’t Survive the Sixth Inning

One swing from Francisco Alvarez sent two Mets home and took away the Rangers’ lead. The next Texas hit never came.

That is the short version of Tuesday’s 6-3 loss at Globe Life Field. Alvarez’s sixth-inning double reversed a 3-2 score, and New York kept moving: another run that inning, one more in the seventh, then three relievers who allowed no hits. Texas had built a small advantage in the fourth. It spent the rest of the evening trying to live on it.

For North Texas readers following the Rangers, the most frustrating part is how little their offense contributed after getting in front. The sixth inning will draw attention because Nathan Eovaldi allowed three runs. It deserves that attention. But a pitching change and a lost lead tell only part of a game in which Texas collected three hits and New York collected 10.

Go back to the fourth. Brandon Nimmo singled, Ezequiel Duran drew a walk and Justin Foscue was struck by a pitch. The bases were full with nobody out. Elias Díaz lifted a sacrifice fly to bring Nimmo home. Danny Jansen then was hit by a pitch, filling the bases again, before Wyatt Langford’s sacrifice fly scored Duran.

Two runs, and Texas was ahead. There was useful execution in those outs; scoring a runner from third still counts when the batter heads back to the dugout. Josh Jung had already driven Jansen home with a double in the third. The Rangers had made their limited hitting worth something.

The trouble was the limit. Sean Manaea finished six innings with nine strikeouts, two walks and three hits allowed. Two of the three runs against him were earned. Texas got a lead against him, but it never developed a second wave of offense. Once the Mets went ahead, there was no answering rally to make New York reconsider its evening.

MacKenzie Gore had kept the game within the Rangers’ reach. In five innings, he allowed four hits and two runs, with just one earned. New York’s fourth-inning run came when Alvarez reached on Nimmo’s fielding error and Carson Benge scored. That mistake mattered in a close game, though it cannot explain everything that followed.

Eovaldi took over for the sixth and faced seven batters. Brett Baty doubled. Benge walked. A force play removed Baty at third but left New York with runners on first and second. Alvarez’s double brought both of those runners around, giving the Mets a 4-3 advantage.

They did not leave him stranded there. A.J. Ewing singled, moving Alvarez to third, and Luis Torrens supplied the sacrifice fly that made it 5-3. New York had used an out to bring a runner home, just as Texas had earlier. The difference was the two-run hit that came before it.

Benge extended the damage an inning later, doubling Baty home after a Bo Bichette walk and another force play. He finished with two doubles, a walk and two runs scored. Alvarez also had two doubles and drove in two. Between them, they provided the extra-base contact that gave New York room to finish the game.

There is no need to turn those innings into an indictment of the decision to remove Gore. The available game record establishes what the pitchers did; it does not explain the reasoning behind that change. Gore had allowed only one earned run, and the Rangers were still leading when his work ended. This was a winnable game.

It became much harder to win without another hit. Nate Lavender, Dedniel Núñez and Kodai Senga handled an inning apiece, combining for six strikeouts. The only Texas runner during those three innings was Nicky Lopez, hit by a pitch in the ninth.

The Rangers had found a way to score without a flurry of hits. For five innings after taking the lead, they found no way to score at all.

Sources

Official MLB game record

Official MLB play-by-play and box score