The Rangers’ Fifth-Inning Rally Had Plenty of Help, but Not Enough Follow-Through

The tying rally began with the sort of singles that rarely make a highlight package but often keep a game alive. Brandon Nimmo opened the fifth inning with a sharp ground-ball single to right. After Ezequiel Duran moved him to second, Jake Burger brought him home with another grounder through the left side.

That was the first useful piece of construction. The Texas Rangers were down 2-0 after Juan Soto’s third-inning home run, and Burger’s single narrowed the gap without requiring a dramatic swing. It was basic offense: a runner advanced, a hit followed, and the inning had somewhere to go.

The rally would tie Wednesday’s game at Globe Life Field, though New York eventually beat Texas 7-2. Before the Mets pulled away, a group of Rangers outside the top three lineup spots had given the offense its one productive inning.

Nicky Lopez supplied the next piece. His line-drive single moved Burger to second, keeping the inning from becoming a one-run footnote. Lopez did not drive in a run, but his hit mattered because it extended the sequence and gave Texas another chance to turn traffic into a lead.

Danny Jansen then walked, loading the bases with one out. That was a meaningful plate appearance even without a ball finding the outfield grass. Jansen’s free pass put pressure on the Mets and created the opportunity for a larger inning. The Rangers had three runners aboard and a chance to do more than merely repair the deficit.

Evan Carter’s force play produced the tying run. Burger scored, Lopez moved to third and Carter reached first, but Jansen was retired at second. The run counted, and the game was level.

Yet the shape of the inning also explained its limitation: Texas had assembled the rally with Nimmo, Burger, Lopez, Jansen and Carter, most of them outside the top three spots in the order, but it could not convert the bases-loaded situation into a lead. Wyatt Langford then popped out to end the threat.

That deserves a little credit and a little criticism. The supporting hitters did their jobs well enough to turn 2-0 into 2-2. Burger finished with a hit and an RBI, Lopez had a hit, Jansen reached safely, and Carter drove in a run despite going hitless.

Nimmo’s opening single gave the inning its starting point. This was not an empty rally assembled by accident; five hitters contributed to it in different ways.

But a productive inning is not the same thing as sustained offense. Texas managed only four hits in the game, and after the fifth-inning tie it did not score again. In the sixth, Corey Seager and Josh Jung grounded out before Nimmo flew out.

McLean retired all three hitters in the seventh. Devin Williams then handled the eighth, finishing it with a strikeout of Langford after Jansen and Carter had been retired. The Rangers had recovered from the early deficit, then spent the next three innings failing to create another scoring sequence.

The late finish changed the temperature quickly. Marcus Semien broke the tie with a solo home run in the eighth, turning a 2-2 game into a 3-2 Mets lead with one swing. Texas still had the bottom of the eighth and the entire ninth to answer, but New York’s Devin Williams retired Jansen, Carter and Langford in order in the eighth.

The ninth made the margin look less competitive than much of the game had been. Nick Morabito singled against Jordan Montgomery, and Francisco Lindor’s groundout moved him to second. Montgomery then intentionally walked Soto, leaving Morabito at second. Bo Bichette walked after Trevor Williams entered, and that free pass moved Morabito to third and Soto to second. Brett Baty followed with a grand slam.

Four runs arrived on one swing, but the inning had already accumulated the runners needed to make that swing decisive. Baty’s home run was the finishing blow; the walks and the earlier single created the conditions for it.

Texas did not get a comparable chance in its half. Josh Jung singled, but Nimmo’s grounder erased him at second, and Duran grounded into another force play. The Rangers finished with four hits, while the Mets had eight and scored seven runs in a 7-2 victory at Globe Life Field.

Nimmo, Burger, Lopez, Jansen and Carter had each helped the fifth inning along. Texas needed another such sequence. Instead, the Mets kept the Rangers off the bases until Jung’s single in the ninth, by which time the score had already reached 7-2.

Sources

Official game data

Official game box score