{"id":37432,"date":"2025-05-18T23:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-18T23:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/37432\/"},"modified":"2025-05-18T23:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-18T23:48:11","slug":"how-rangers-latest-edition-of-silver-boot-series-was-a-mixed-bag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/37432\/","title":{"rendered":"How Rangers\u2019 latest edition of Silver Boot series was a mixed bag"},"content":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 Look, even if everything did go according to plan, the Texas Rangers<\/a> still wouldn\u2019t have had better than a fourth-place week among Dallas-Fort Worth\u2019s professional franchises. <\/p>\n

The Mavericks won the draft lottery<\/a>. The Wings debuted a superstar<\/a>. The Stars advanced to the Western Conference finals again<\/a>. The Rangers weren\u2019t going to match either of those three accomplishments in a first-half regular season series. <\/p>\n

Still. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe obviously left some opportunities on the table there,\u201d catcher Jonah Heim<\/a> said. \u201cOne or two pitches there and I think we throw three shutouts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

A Sunday edition of the Silver Boot series: Photos from Rangers-Astros<\/p>\n

\"TexasView Gallery<\/p>\n

Instead, in a four-game series vs. the rival Houston Astros, they settled for one shutout and a split. The Rangers had a chance to start a six-game road trip with a clear advantage over the Astros in the American League West standings, but both are now two games behind the Seattle Mariners after the season\u2019s first Silver Boot series.<\/p>\n

Jacob deGrom\u2019s vintage start in Thursday\u2019s win set the tone<\/a>. The bullpen\u2019s seventh-inning meltdown in Friday\u2019s loss changed the tenor. Resurgent nights from designated hitter Joc Pederson and second baseman Marcus Semien in Saturday\u2019s win teed up a grand finale. <\/p>\n

Related:Jacob deGrom introduces himself to Astros, Silver Boot series with masterclass performance<\/a><\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s 4-3 loss at Globe Life Field \u2014 in which Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes hit a go-ahead three-run home run in the eighth inning vs. Rangers left-hander Robert Garcia \u2014 was instead a reflection of the series\u2019 first three games. <\/p>\n

Good, but, not quite entirely great. <\/p>\n

\u201cA couple games could\u2019ve gone either way,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. \u201c[Today] went their way, they got the three-run homer.\u201d <\/p>\n

Things went Houston\u2019s way in a hurry. Rangers starter Jack Leiter worked a no-hitter through 6 2\/3 innings and, as of 1:43 p.m., had a three-run lead to work with and still had not yet allowed a hit. By 2:20 p.m., and after two pitching changes, the Rangers trailed by a run and were met by boos as Paredes circled the bases. <\/p>\n

Leiter\u2019s no-hit and shutout bid ended in the seventh inning after Houston catcher Yainer Diaz hit a full-count high-and-away slider into the Rangers\u2019 bullpen to make it a 3-1 game. He was removed from the game in the top of the eighth inning after center fielder Jake Meyers (86.4 mph single) and right fielder Cam Smith (71.3 mph) reached on soft contact. <\/p>\n

Leiter\u2019s fifth pitch to Smith, a slider, caught most of the zone and would have ended the at bat had it been called a strike. Home plate umpire Nick Mahrley \u2014 whose balls and strikes judgment created an inconsistent zone and led to an early ejection for Houston manager Joe Espada \u2014 instead called it a ball and extended the plate appearance. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is,\u201d said Leiter, who pitched into the eighth inning of a game for the first time in his big league career. \u201cBalls found holes that inning. You stay on the attack. That\u2019s kind of what we\u2019d been doing all day. All day they weren\u2019t finding holes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Heim: \u201cGot unlucky with some missed calls at the end there, but that\u2019s the game. Sometimes it goes your way, sometimes it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bochy pulled Leiter at 87 pitches with runners at first and second in favor of veteran setup man Chris Martin. Martin lasted just one pitch for the second time this week, and after a scream of frustration, exited the game with what Bochy later described as \u201cshoulder discomfort.\u201d <\/p>\n

Garcia entered, recorded the first two outs on just three pitches, but left Paredes a low-in-the-zone changeup that was a little too close to the center of the plate. Paredes made just enough contact with it to clear the left field wall and give Houston the lead. It was the second time in a three-game span that the Rangers\u2019 bullpen coughed up a lead late in a game. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of borderline of too much middle,\u201d said Garcia, who brought a 1.77 ERA into the game and hadn\u2019t allowed a home run all season. \u201cI\u2019m not going to sit there and be picky about it. I\u2019m here to attack guys. That\u2019s what I do. In my head, it was a good pitch, he made a good swing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rangers did, too, to no avail in the eighth inning. Designated hitter Adolis Garc\u00eda reached base on a 100.5 mph single and Semien walked, but left fielder Wyatt Langford (106.2 mph lineout), third baseman Josh Jung (104.6 mph lineout) and catcher Jonah Heim (103.9 mph flyout) each recorded outs on batted balls that carried an expected batting average of .540 or better. <\/p>\n

Consider that something good shrouded in the bad. The Rangers, in week two of the Bret Boone era, hit the ball especially hard Sunday. They recorded four hard-hit singles in the fourth inning to score three runs vs. Houston left-hander Framber Valdez. <\/p>\n

Heim, who scored the game\u2019s second run on a sacrifice fly vs. Valdez, led the seventh inning off with a 99.6 mph single and promptly stole second base. The would-be opportunity was squashed when Heim ran into a force out at third base on a Kevin Pillar groundball to shortstop Mauricio Dub\u00f3n. He took accountability postgame and called it a \u201cbad base running play.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know Jonah would like to have that base running back,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cThat ended up costing us a run there.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Rangers cost themselves a great series. <\/p>\n

They\u2019ll have to settle for just good.<\/p>\n

Texas Rangers officially sign two-way South Korean teenage standout Seong-Jun Kim<\/a>Jack Leiter\u2019s dominant start squandered as Texas Rangers unravel to end series with Astros<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ARLINGTON \u2014 Look, even if everything did go according to plan, the Texas Rangers still wouldn\u2019t have had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[3418,4805,5,3321,10546,4,3245,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-37432","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-adolis-garcia","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-bruce-bochy","12":"tag-globe-life-field","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-mlb-texas-rangers","15":"tag-rangers","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-rangers","19":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114531513610214137","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}