'That Can't Happen': Mental Lapse Thwarts Rangers' Comeback Attempt in Loss To Astros
ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers suffered a painful loss Wednesday night, falling to the Houston Astros by a score of 4-3. The loss dropped Texas to 6-12 on the season.
Losing to your division rival is one thing. Losing a game that should have been won—or at least sent to extra innings—is something else entirely.
Trailing by two runs in the ninth inning, Willie Calhoun led off with a walk then Adolis García came through with another big hit in crunch time against Houston, lining a double into the left field corner to give the Rangers runners at second and third with nobody out.
Jonah Heim then came to the plate and Houston was willing to concede one run for an out. The infield played in normal depth and Houston's Alex Bregman was not holding Calhoun close at third base. Heim gave Houston the ground ball they were looking for with a tapper to first base. Third base coach Tony Beasley told Calhoun to break for home, but the Rangers' left fielder froze.
"That can't happen, frankly," said manager Chris Woodward. "We have to be better than that if we're going to be a winning team. We can't make a mental lapse like that."
Calhoun did score on an RBI groundout by Brad Miller in the very next at-bat. But the comeback came up short as Kole Calhoun struck out with the tying run 90 feet from home plate.
As for Willie, he knew he made a mistake and lamented over it when approached by the media after the game.
"That was my fault," Calhoun said. "I definitely should have ran. I just got a little timid and didn't want to make that out. I should have ran. 100 percent."
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
The Rangers had to battle multiple times Wednesday night. Texas starter Glenn Otto got off to a shaky start, allowing a leadoff home run to Chas McCormick on the first pitch of the game and walked two more Astros with only one out in the opening frame. However, Otto was able to get out of the inning without any more runs scoring and lasted until one out in the fifth inning.
Thanks to a solo home run by Mitch Garver and RBI single by Miller in the second inning, Otto left the game after 4 1/3 innings with a 2-1 lead.
"Pretty rough first inning, but I'm glad I was able to find a groove and at least get into the fifth," Otto said. "Ideally, I would have liked to give the club five or six full innings and save the bullpen a little bit."
However, reliever Brett Martin was unable to hold the lead in that fifth inning. While he managed to get Alex Bregman to pop out for the second out of the inning after a single by Michael Brantley, Martin walked Yordan Alvarez to load the bases.
As it has all season, the free pass with two outs hurt the Rangers. Kyle Tucker cleared the bases with a three-run double to give the Astros a 4-2 lead.
The Rangers threatened with two outs in the sixth inning. Mitch Garver hit a dribbler up the third base line for an infield single, then Willie Calhoun reached via hit-by-pitch. Up came García, who has terrorized Houston pitching in his young career, and worked a long at-bat. However, after being pounded exclusively with fastballs, Astros reliever Bryan Abreu froze García on a slider up and away for a called third strike.
The offense also had an opportunity to climb back into the game when Heim led off the seventh inning with a double. But some bad luck reared its ugly head again as two line drives found gloves and Heim ended up stranded.
As painful as some bad luck can be, the ninth inning clearly stood out as the hardest pill to swallow.
"We had opportunities for sure," said Woodward. "It's just always some mental lapse or something that gets in the way of us winning a game."
What's Next?
The Rangers and Astros conclude their four-game series at Globe Life Field on Thursday afternoon. Rangers veteran Martín Pérez (0-2, 3.86 ERA) is scheduled to square off with Astros right-hander Justin Verlander (1-1, 1.89 ERA).
