Rangers' 'bad' offense leads to disappointing loss in Wild Card chase

ARLINGTON -- The 2025 Texas Rangers have zero margin for error. It’s been the story of this entire season. And at this point in the season, everything is amplified.

The Rangers’ newly-acquired reliever, Danny Coulombe, allowed a go-ahead homer to Ketel Marte in the top of the ninth inning on Tuesday night. It was the first run he allowed since joining the club at the Trade Deadline and the first homer he surrendered all season long. That would be the deciding run as Texas fell, 3-2, to Arizona at Globe Life Field.

That may have been the winning run, but this loss -- much like the Rangers’ entire season to this point -- is about much more than that.

“We’ve gotta give him a little room for error,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “[Coulombe] has been doing a great job. That was a good hitter he faced. We had our chances. I’m not gonna look at the pitching here. I’m not gonna look at the defense. We’ve gotta show up with the bats.”

In a vacuum, the Rangers were in control much of the night, holding onto a one-run lead from the third inning until the seventh.

In the seventh, the Rangers committed two uncharacteristic fielding errors that would change the game. Reliever Robert Garcia booted a comebacker and then airmailed an attempted behind-the-back toss into the photographers’ well. Then third baseman Josh Jung bobbled a sacrifice bunt attempt. Not a single ball left the infield before the Diamondbacks tied the game, 2-2.

The Rangers entered the day leading baseball in defensive runs saved (76) and ranking fourth in outs above average (22).

“It wasn't that,” Bochy said of the defense. “We’ve got to swing the bats. Come on. That was one of our worst games. We were bad tonight. No getting around it. We had our chances. The pitching did a good job. Our defense got shaky in that one inning. But you gotta be allowed to give up a couple of runs. We were just not good tonight.”

So about that margin of error.

The Rangers' offense has been a point of contention all season long. Early struggles led to offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker being relieved of his duties in early May. They seemed to emerge out of season-long funk in July, when they collectively slashed .252/.325/.423.

Things seemed to be looking up so much that the Rangers didn’t add any bats at the Trade Deadline, instead acquiring a trio of pitchers in Coulombe, Phil Maton and Merrill Kelly.

But on Tuesday, more of the same issues persisted. After getting ahead 2-1 after three innings, the Rangers only had three baserunners over the final six frames. Wyatt Langford drew walks in both the third and sixth innings -- and there were no Texas baserunners in between.

Additionally, Texas went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position, stranding seven on base.

“Four hits,” Bochy said. “We had some chances out there, but you guys saw the game tonight.”

“We were just bad,” Bochy said again. “We’re better than this.”

It’s the most critical Bochy has been of the offense all season long, even throughout the persistent struggles. And he’s doing everything he can to get them going.

Bochy has rearranged the lineup. The front office has sent guys down to Triple-A and brought them back up. They’ve shuffled prospects in and out of the roster, hoping for some type of spark.

But more than anything, what the Rangers need right now is to win. And that’s hard to do with a razor thin margin for error.

“I think every loss is going to be amplified at this point, especially whoever we're chasing wins,” said second baseman Marcus Semien. “Everybody's going to be more frustrated. But at the end of the day, we can’t dwell on this loss. We didn't play good enough defense at the end. I think we were controlling the whole game with a poor offense the whole night. It’s just an unfortunate seventh inning and then a big swing by them.”