Rangers rally late to even series with Rox

The Texas Rangers responded to the Colorado Rockies rallying to beat them in the first game of the series with one of their own to take the second.

In a tight game that Colorado led most of the way, the Rangers poured in five late runs to even the series.

The Rockies scratched out the first run of the game in the second. Ian Desmond worked a one-out walk and forced a balk when he took off for second, being granted the base. But with Tom Murphy striking out, it was up to Carlos Gonzalez to take advantage with two outs.

In another test against left-handed pitching, CarGo continued to produce by hitting a groundball up the middle that scored Desmond from second.

With both starting pitchers working effectively and efficiently, it looked for a while like that might be the only run scored in the game.

But Colorado added another in the sixth, again employing some small-ball tactics.

DJ LeMahieu singled to open the frame and advanced to second on a groundball out off the bat of Charlie Blackmon. LeMahieu moved up to third on a wild pitch and scored on a sac fly line drive to center by Nolan Arenado. It was a nice piece of situational hitting the likes of which the Rockies have often missed this season.

In fact, an inability to deliver in a similar situation cost Colorado in the seventh. Desmond stayed hot at the plate with a line drive single to left and made it to third on a Murphy double. But with runners at second and third and nobody out Gonzalez and Noel Cuevas each hit pop flies that weren’t nearly deep enough. The inning ended with a bases-loaded groundout by LeMahieu.

The missed opportunity came back to haunt the Rockies immediately as the Rangers finally broke through against Freeland in the bottom of the seventh. He was greeted by a triple off the wall in center from Rougned Odor who scored on an Isiah Kiner-Fields groundball double.

Freeland didn’t appear rattled, though, coming back to get Joey Gallo to fly out to left and Ronal Guzman to ground out to the shortstop. But Kiner-Fields moved to third on the second out and managed to score after a fantastic at-bat from rookie Jose Trevino who fought off multiple tough pitches with two outs before hitting a grounder up the third base line that deflected off of Arenado’s glove and went for a game-tying single.

The game slipped away from the Rockies in the following inning when Harrison Musgrave walked Delino DeShields, allowed a single to Jurrickson Profar, and then the dagger from Adrian Beltre on a line drive that hung up over Gonzalez’ reach in right field, ultimately going down as a two-run triple.

Final Stats:

Kyle Freeland: 7 IP, 8 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 3 K

Harrison Musgrave: 0.0 IP, 2 H, 3 ER, 1 BB

Bryan Shaw: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 K

Ian Desmond: 1-for-3, 1 R

DJ LeMahieu: 1-for-4, 1 R

What’s Next:

The rubber match takes place Sunday afternoon as Jon Gray takes on Yovani Gallardo. First pitch at 1:05 Mountain Time.