Rangers roll with the punches, bounce back with gutsy win against division rival Mariners

SEATTLE – Travel, these days. Can we talk about what a hassle it is?

Just consider the Rangers’ itinerary for the last week. Lost two of three in Anaheim, including their sloppiest, weirdest game of the season. Got delayed on the tarmac on the way out of town for 90 minutes with no air conditioning — see the famous travel just like us! — and arrived in Seattle at nearly 4 a.m. Sat through the typical anxiety of trade deadline day, then were shut out and walked off on the first two nights in town. And were on the verge of losing “contender” status before the card and the perks arrived in the mail.

But you know what? Despite it all, if Jacob deGrom can hold serve against the Seattle Mariners on Sunday the Rangers will come home having lost no ground in a virtual tie for the final wild card spot and, it’s possible they could even pick up ground in the AL West. They trail Seattle by a game and Houston by 4 ½.

All it took to change the outlook: A 6-4 11-inning win over the Mariners Saturday and the score hardly told the story. Along the way, new starter Merrill Kelly made his debut, pitched brilliantly for five innings, then nearly threw it all away with a couple of “brain cramps” in the sixth. More plucky pitching from the duo of Coulombe & Maton, relievers at large and ultimately a win (and unofficially a save) from a 24-year-old Venezuelan reliever making his second MLB appearance.

Rangers

Luis Curvelo entered in the 10th after closer Robert Garcia had blown a save for the second straight day, then felt a knot in a muscle near his shoulder blade and left with the winning run on first and a 2-0 count to Eugenio Suarez. All Curvelo did was really back from 3-0 to strike out his Venezuelan friend and the biggest bat moved at the trade deadline, then came back in the 11th to finish off Seattle.

When it was all done and the Rangers had overcome two blown leads to win it on three-opposite field hits in the 11th and a rookie on the mound, it might have been the Rangers’ most important win to date.

Just one question: Exactly how’d you win that game, Boch?

“We won because they kept fighting,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “They kept fighting to the end. You come off a game like last night and then take some hits today and it’s just about continuing to go hard. I keep saying after those losses: You have no choice but to come back. And they did that today. It would have been easy to get down.

“In fact, after I went to the mound [after the second of the blown leads], Kyle Higashioka said ‘we’ll just get them next inning.’ And they did.”

Higashioka is as good a place as any to start discussion about this game. He carried the Rangers offense for the first 10 innings, hitting a two-run homer in the third and then delivering a go-ahead single in the 10th. He’s been on a tear since dropping his bat size from a 34-inch model to a 33-inch version three weeks ago, mostly on a whim. Since: He’s hitting .385 with a team-high five home runs and a .731 slugging percentage. And, no, it’s not a torpedo bat, in case you were wondering. But it is the kind of hot streak the Rangers haven’t seen from anyone outside of Corey Seager. It’s made the bottom of the order dangerous.

And despite it all, the Rangers still nearly lost. A night after Garcia blew a lead in a five-pitch span, it took him only three pitches to allow a game-tying homer to Randy Arozarena to start the bottom of the 10th. This after Bochy had basically waved off any questions about changing closers prior to the game. It’s a real question now, though the Rangers won’t know the significance of what was later called a “mid-back spasm,” until Sunday or later.

For whatever its worth, the energetic Curvelo, a former Mariners prospect called up earlier in the week, certainly was up to the high-leverage task on Saturday. He retired all four batters he faced with a fastball-slider combo that was effective enough, even after the Rangers grew concerned Seattle might have picked up something in his delivery. Pitching Coach Mike Maddux went to the mound with two outs in the 11th and J.P. Crawford, Friday night’s hero, at the plate to tell Curvelo to be careful. No problem there either. Two pitches later Crawford flied out to short right on a 97 mph fastball.

“He’s got a lot of enthusiasm and passion,” Bochy said. “You can see it out there. And he’s got confidence. He went at him and just did a terrific job.”

Through an interpreter, Curvelo, who comes from a smallish beach community that threw a party to celebrate his big league debut two days earlier, said: “I went into the game like it was a 0-0 count and the first pitch I threw, I thought was a strike. But I didn’t get it. I went back, took a deep breath and just went back to thinking it was a 0-0 count.”

Sounds so simple.

But then so did Higashioka’s explanation of adjustments. He’s tried to get back to “putting the bat on the ball” and “hitting it hard.”

Simple stuff. Just like what you have to do to get back in a playoff race.

“If you are going to mount a playoff run, get there, be successful, you are going to play teams that punch back,” Higashioka said. “You’ve got to keep rolling with it. “

The Rangers rolled with the punches Saturday and offered their own.

After Robert Garcia’s premature exit, will the Rangers go a different direction at closer?