75-60 - Rangers continue to perfect the art of losing with latest defeat

The Texas Rangers scored seven runs but the Minnesota Twins scored nine runs in 10 innings.

Well, you can’t really blame the bullpen. They tossed 5 ¹⁄₃ shutout innings tonight before the extra inning Manfred Man scored and then Aroldis Chapman imploded when tasked with an infrequent second inning.

You can’t really blame the bats, either. They didn’t really pile on once they took an early lead, and they didn’t take advantage of some of their opportunities late, but with as poorly as Texas has been hitting recently, six runs (I’m not counting the zombie run) from the bats would have won a great many of the losses in this current bout of misery.

Instead, you can blame tonight’s starting pitcher Jordan Montgomery, who had actually been one of the recent bright spots. But that appears to be the modus operandi for Texas of late. If by some miracle the bullpen doesn’t implode, the rotation falters. If the starter pitches well, the bats go for the silent. If everything works well until the final frames, the relievers crap the cot.

After the Rangers took a 4-0 lead, including two rare 1st inning runs, Montgomery had a hiccup in the 3rd to make it a 4-1 game before collapsing fully in the 4th as the Twins had six consecutive two-out hitters reach against Montgomery to turn a 4-1 game into a 6-4 deficit and an early shower for the deadline acquisition.

Just to tease, as is their wont, the Rangers scored the next two runs in the game to tie it in the 8th and send it to extras but, I mean, come on, they don’t win these.

Player of the Game: * left empty intentionally *

Up Next: The series finale will pit RHP Jon Gray against RHP Kenta Maeda from The Shed. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 pm CT and will be aired on BS Southwest.