Rangers erupt for 20 runs ahead of season-defining stretch

ARLINGTON -- What do you do when you lose your ace as you wobble near the edge of a postseason push?

On Tuesday, the Rangers lost Nathan Eovaldi -- who was in the midst of the best season of his career -- for the remainder of the regular season due a rotator cuff strain. On Wednesday, they threw a bullpen game in his place.

That turned out to be no problem. In fact, things couldn’t have gone better.

Jacob Latz and Co. virtually shut down the Angels on Wednesday night, while the Rangers’ offense exploded for four home runs -- from Corey Seager, Adolis García, Joc Pederson and Kyle Higashioka -- en route to a 20-3 win and a series victory. Texas scored 12 runs and had a sizable lead before Angels infielder Oswald Peraza took the mound in the seventh inning.

“I thought it was a big game for us to take the series [and finish] a really good homestand,” said manager Bruce Bochy. “The bats from the start, they were there. Great at-bats, and it just got contagious throughout the lineup. Terrific at-bats -- walks, base hits, home runs. The fellas did a really, really good job in this homestand. They finished it off with a great game.”

The 20 runs are the most the Rangers have scored since 2011. It is tied for the third-most runs in franchise history.

The 22 hits are also the Rangers' most since that last 20-run game. Texas had 12 players record a hit, tied for the most in a single game in franchise history (since 1961).

“We got on base a lot, we slugged, we applied a lot of pressure,” Pederson said. “That's what our offense is capable of. It's capable of putting up runs and putting up runs fast.”

The Rangers also had three players with five RBIs: Pederson, García and Higashioka. That’s only the 10th time since 1920 -- when RBIs first became official -- that a team has had three players with five or more. It was last done by the Blue Jays in 2022. The Rangers also did it with Juan Gonzalez, Kevin Elster and Dean Palmer in 1996.

Wednesday night looked like a team that was having fun winning. Not the team that had lost seven contributors to the injured list in a matter of days.

“Baseball is supposed to be fun,” Pederson said. “I think when a lot of people get hits, it allows people to loosen up, take some weight off their shoulders. Baseball's supposed to be fun. … It sucks [to lose guys to the injured list], it's frustrating. But I think the young guys that have come up have brought a ton of energy and light and laughter and have lightened up the mood here and changed it for the good.”

Did the Rangers need a game like this?

“We need all of them any way we can get them,” Pederson said.

The Rangers have now won five of their last six games -- all at home -- and now embark on a West Coast road trip that could be season-defining.

Texas has gone 42-27 (.609) at home this season, which is 10th-best in MLB. On the other hand, the club has gone 26-40 (.394) on the road, 26th in MLB. The + .209 difference in winning percentage of home records over road records is the third-largest in MLB, trailing only the Pirates (+ .258) and Mets (+ .216) in that category.

“Like I said, I don't have the answer to why that's happening, why we scored a lot of runs this whole series, but baseball is contagious, so you just keep building on that and keep vibing,” Pederson said. “[We have to] continue to play good baseball, score a lot of runs. You gotta go out there and find a way to win, whether that's playing with their energy, or whatever, but it is a necessity for this situation.”