ARLINGTON -- Sometime back in May or June, Josh Smith recalled, when the Rangers were in a deep funk, Patrick Corbin talked to the team about the 2019 Nationals.
That team went on to win the World Series as a National League Wild Card entry. Those Nationals didn’t truly hit their stride until late June and into July.
“It's 162 games,” Smith said. “It doesn't really matter how you come out in April and May. You want to be playing your best baseball right now, toward the end of the year. Corbin talked about that a little bit when he was with the Nationals. They got hot and won it all. So we'll see.”
Getting hot? That seems to be happening right about now.
Coming off a tough road trip in which they went 2-5 in Anaheim and Seattle, the Rangers returned to Arlington needing to play good baseball.
Though they dropped the series finale, 3-2, the Rangers secured the series victory over the Yankees to open the nine-game, 10-day homestand. The loss snapped an eight-game home winning streak dating back to the first homestand after the All-Star break.
But a series win in and of itself shows the resilience of this Rangers team that desperately needs to continue this upward trajectory.
“I think this shows the fight in them,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “We've had some tough losses, and I keep saying that they're doing a great job of bouncing back.
“It's all about being resilient. They came in here and won two really hard-fought games that really could have gone either way, with both teams having a tough time scoring today. It’s great to come away with the wins the way we did. You could get frustrated … but you keep fighting, and that's what they're doing.”
On the other hand, despite a series win, it’s hard not to feel as if the Rangers let this one get away.
The Rangers got into a big pickle early, when starting pitcher Jack Leiter was knocked out of the game with one out in the fourth inning after issuing three walks in the frame. The Texas rookie’s command was off from the start, when he threw more balls (10) than strikes (eight) in a scoreless opening frame.
Leiter battled and escaped through three scoreless innings before it unraveled in the fourth, when the Yankees scored two runs before reliever Hoby Milner put out the fire.
“I just felt a little out of sync the whole way,” Leiter said. “It’s got to be better. I got in bad counts, and that’s a team that's willing to take their walks if you give it to them. That's what happened tonight. I just didn't do my job.”
When the starter doesn’t get out of the fourth inning, that leads to inevitable trouble on the back end. While Milner dealt 2 2/3 hitless innings, the rest of the Rangers’ bullpen was unable to follow his lead.
Robert Garcia, just days after blowing saves in back-to-back days in Seattle and losing the closer job, allowed a pinch-hit go-ahead solo homer to Paul Goldschmidt in the seventh inning.
Bochy said earlier in the homestand that he wished for a “soft landing” for Garcia, but with the way the bullpen was set up on Wednesday, he was quickly thrown into the fire.
“I'm staying behind him,” Bochy said. “He's a big part of the bullpen. That's where I'm at with him. We try not to get too down on these guys up here after a rough game or couple tough outings. We have to use everybody. He’s been a big part of the games that we won, closing a lot of games. So he'll continue to go out there.”
Meanwhile, the Rangers’ offense made its living on singles and walks, putting together good at-bats but not coming through in the clutch. Texas had more hits than New York (eight to six), but it stranded 11 runners -- including two in the bottom of the ninth -- and never re-took the lead after Goldschmidt’s homer.
“It was a hard-fought series,” Bochy said. “It's hard to take all three from this team. As you saw today, we had a winning run there on second base in the ninth inning. This doesn’t take away a lot of the good things in this series. Sure, we would like that one today. It was a tight ballgame, and we just couldn't get that one more hit. We just always need that one more and couldn't quite get it tonight.”