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The Rangers scored five runs, all on home runs, and held leads of 1-0, 4-1, and 5-3 but did not win in part because they couldn’t stay out of their own way.
Mitch Moreland contributed the landscape shifting hit for Boston, a two-run home run that brought the Red Sox back to within 4-3 and started their comeback bid. Moreland’s homer probably wouldn’t have gone out of the park except it bounced off, up, and over Shin-Soo Choo’s glove during his attempt to rob Moreland of a hit at the wall.
In addition, Jurickson Profar performed a bizarre play where he sprinted out to left field on a bloop double off the bat of Andrew Benintendi and instead of letting Ryan Rua field the ball he chased it down with his back to the bases and let Mookie Betts score the tying run while he just kind of held onto the ball in shallow-to-mid left field until it was too late to make a throw.
This came a few minutes after Profar ran into — and bounced off of — Joey Gallo on an infield popup so maybe a couple of screws came loose for a guy who came advertised as a prospect with plus baseball acumen.
Later, with the game tied 5-5, the Rangers had runners on second and third with no outs and couldn’t score the go-ahead run despite having the middle of the lineup at the plate. One half inning later, the outfield defense turned a one-out Benintendi double into a triple by poorly playing the carom off the wall. Hanley Ramirez followed by doing what Texas couldn’t by producing a go-ahead sac fly.
The Rangers don’t have to play a perfect baseball game to win but their margin for error is not big enough to make a handful of blunders and still come out on top most nights. And, honestly, in a game where Delino DeShields hits a three-run home run, you should win 100% of the time.
Player of the Game: Joey Gallo had two of the Rangers’ six hits and they went nearly a combined 1,000 ft from home plate. Popcorn vendors hate him.
Up Next: The Rangers and Red Sox close out this series with Doug Fister set to square off against Chris Sale. First pitch of the finale is scheduled for 2:05 pm CT.