ARLINGTON — Their first at-bat of the game, one in which Texas Rangers second baseman Justin Foscue fouled off seven consecutive pitches and saw nine total, might’ve needed a spoiler warning.
The Rangers paired their heightened ability to hit left-handed pitchers with premier patience in order to stake an early lead and hold on for a 4-2 win vs. the Boston Red Sox at Globe Life Field Tuesday night. They escalated Red Sox left-hander Patrick Sandoval’s pitch counts with quality at-bats, scored four runs against him in the second inning and chased him from the game before the fourth while their ace handled the rest.
It kept the Rangers a game behind the first-place Houston Astros in the AL West race and a game-and-a-half behind the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Wild Card race with less than three weeks to play in the regular season. The Astros, who beat the Kansas City Royals Tuesday night to hold their position, effectively have a two-game lead over the Rangers because they hold the season tiebreaker.
The Rangers scored all of their runs in two-out, two-strike at-bats in the second inning. Rangers catcher Elias Díaz ended an eight-pitch battle vs. Sandoval with a double into left field that scored two runs for a 2-0 lead, and three at-bats later, shortstop Corey Seager lofted a two-strike sweeper into shallow left field for another two runs and a 4-0 lead. They averaged 4.8 pitches per plate appearance vs. Sandoval, who exited with two outs in the fourth inning, and worked nine at-bats of five or more pitches against him.
“That Díaz at-bat was just amazing,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “For him to still stay on it, hit it down the line, two runs scored, just a fantastic at-bat.”
Schumaker said that Foscue’s leadoff at-bat, in which he saw six different pitch types, “set the tone” for the game.
“He saw all the pitches,” Schumaker said, “and each guy behind him saw all the pitches.”
It all provided right-handed pitcher Jacob deGrom (5 innings, 2 earned runs, 8 strikeouts) and the Rangers’ bullpen a cushion to work with. The two-time Cy Young Award winner allowed a two-run home run to second baseman Nick Sogard in the top of the third inning, but in his fifth and final frame of work, he stranded the bases loaded when catcher Adley Rutschman reached for a slider and hit into an inning-ending groundout.
The Rangers are now 25-19 vs. left-handed starting pitchers this season and are statistically one of baseball’s best offenses vs. all southpaws. Their .261 batting average, .332 on-base percentage and .434 slugging percentage vs. left-handed pitchers each rank fourth-best league-wide. They’ve posted an .820 OPS vs. left-handed pitchers — the third-best mark in baseball — since Aug. 1.
