ARLINGTON — It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t quick and it wasn’t productive.
The Texas Rangers lost 6-4 in the 12th inning at Globe Life Field Friday night in the series opener vs. the close-to-eliminated Miami Marlins. It extended their losing streak to five games and pushed them further from playoff contention with only eight games left to play.
Marlins center fielder Jakob Marsee hit a go-ahead double off left-hander Patrick Corbin — a starter thrown into relief action as the team deploys all possible options to win — in the 12th inning. Catcher Brian Navarreto hit a double two at-bats later to give Miami a two-run advantage and right fieler Dane Myers hit a single two at-bats after that to make it a 6-3 game.
Corbin, who’s made 28 starts this season, had not pitched out of the bullpen in the regular season since Sep. 29, 2017, with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Rangers
In just as bad news: The two teams that the Rangers are in pursuit of won Friday night. They now trail the Boston Red Sox by five games for the American League’s third and final wild card berth. They also trail Cleveland Guardians, whom they’ll play three games against next weekend, by 3½ games.
The Rangers were down to their final out in the bottom of the 10th inning when pinch hitter Rowdy Tellez crushed a game-tying two-run home run off right-hander Michael Petersen. It was the team’s first base hit since the sixth inning and it snapped an 0-for-11 drought.
The Marlins scored the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th inning when shortstop Otto Lopez doubled off left-hander Hoby Milner to score the ghost runner from second and take a 2-1 lead. Second baseman Xavier Edwards hit a single two at-bats later to give the Marlins a 3-1 lead.
The Rangers scored their first run in the second inning on a batted ball that barely rolled halfway up the third base line. Designated hitter Joc Pederson led off with an automatic double that jumped over the right field wall. He advanced on a groundout and scored on a 42.8 mph dribbler from third baseman Josh Jung that Miami’s infield had hoped would roll foul.
They went 12 consecutive at-bats without a base hit or walk after Jung’s single. Rookie outfielder Alejandro Osuna, in the two-hole Friday with Wyatt Langford out with side tightness, singled with two outs in the sixth inning to snap the drought for the team’s third hit.
Right-handed pitcher Tyler Mahle, in his first big league start since June 10 after shoulder fatigue sidelined him for three months, allowed four hits and a walk in 4⅔ scoreless innings. He struck out four of the first six Miami batters he faced and stranded runners at second and third base in the third inning.
He exited in the top of the fifth, after 68 pitches, with runners at second and third base. Left-hander Jacob Latz, who’d pitched his last four games as a starter in right-hander Nathan Eovaldi’s absence, entered and got the inning’s final out on a flyout from Marsee.
Latz allowed former Rangers farmhands Liam Hicks (single) and Heriberto Hernández (walk) to reach with one out in the sixth inning before Rangers manager Bruce Bochy lifted him after just 16 pitches. Veteran right-hander Chris Martin entered, and elicited a groundout and a strikeout to end the inning and strand both runners.
The Rangers used a fourth pitcher to start the seventh inning. Left-hander Robert Garcia — once the team’s closer before a stretch of blown saves in early August — replaced Martin. He allowed a game-tying home run to pinch hitter Javier Sanoja on a hung slider with his first pitch of the game. Garcia then gave up singles to No. 9 hitter Eric Wagaman and Marsee before Bochy pulled him in the middle of an at-bat vs. Lopez.
Right-hander Phil Maton, though, delivered in relief of Garcia. He got Lopez to hit into an inning-ending double play on his cutter to preserve the tie.
Maton and right-hander Shawn Armstrong combined for 2⅔ scoreless innings to help send the game into extras.
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