Burger delivers clutch HR, but reeling Rangers can't 'stop the bleeding'

WEST SACRAMENTO -- The Rangers finally got the big hit with runners in scoring position that they’d been searching for all week.

And it still wasn’t enough.

Jake Burger’s game-tying three-run homer in the top of the sixth inning of Friday’s series opener at Sutter Health Park looked like the breakthrough Texas needed. But after the Athletics retook the lead in the bottom of the frame, the Rangers were held silent for the rest of the night in a disappointing 8-3 defeat.

“We’re just finding different ways to lose, unfortunately,” manager Skip Schumaker said.

Following three straight losses to the Angels in Anaheim, Friday’s defeat was yet another setback against a club at the bottom of the American League standings. With the Astros’ 10-7 comeback win over the Mariners on Friday in Houston, the Rangers have fallen to three games out of first place in the AL West, tying their largest deficit of the season.

The loss came on a day that featured a flurry of Texas roster moves, as well as what Schumaker called healthy conversations aimed at relieving tension and increasing energy within the clubhouse. Hoping that those talks would help get the Rangers on the right track, Schumaker candidly admitted after the loss that it might be time to try another tactic.

“Obviously, the stuff I tried to do today didn’t work,” he said. “We’ll try to circle back and do other things to see if we can get this thing righted a little bit.”

Instead, the Rangers struggled to square up A’s rookie lefty Gage Jump, held hitless until the fifth inning, when Evan Carter grounded a one-out single off Jump’s glove. On the very next pitch, Wyatt Langford hit into a 6-3 double play to promptly end the threat.

Texas found life in the sixth, when Corey Seager walked, Ezequiel Duran singled and Burger drove a 3-2 fastball from Jump a Statcast-projected 428 feet to left-center field. It was the first baseman’s 20th home run of the season, and it was a big one.

“We were looking for the big hit, kind of a momentum-swinging play or change of emotion in the dugout, and Burger provided that,” Schumaker said. “It was an amazing at-bat.”

The Rangers couldn’t enjoy it for long. Jeff McNeil homered off righty reliever Chase Silseth in the bottom of the inning to put the A’s back ahead, Lawrence Butler went deep against lefty Robby Ahlstrom in the seventh, and the A’s added three more runs against lefty Tyler Alexander in the eighth.

The Rangers threatened in the eighth, down 5-3 with two men aboard, but pinch-hitter Nicky Lopez flied out to left field. Texas left eight men on base in the game, stranding the bases loaded in a pivotal top of the first before the A’s cashed in for a two-out, three-run double in the bottom of the frame.

Burger acknowledged the Rangers’ offensive frustrations, which have been evident all week: Texas hasn’t scored four runs since Monday in Anaheim, and it took a three-run 10th inning to get there.

“I think the worst thing we could possibly do right now is put pressure on ourselves and try to hit an eight-run home run,” Burger said. “It’s about passing the baton and trusting the guy behind you, and trusting the guy in front of you to get on base and take a good at-bat.”

It’s hard not to feel the pressure with a mounting deficit in the AL West and only 39 regular-season games left to play. This week’s games against struggling clubs in Anaheim and West Sacramento were eminently winnable, but the Rangers’ road division struggles wore on. With Friday’s loss, Texas is just 5-16 (.238) in divisional road games in 2026, the second-worst mark in MLB.

Asked to point to a reason for the road woes against division foes, Burger had little explanation.

“If you have an answer, let me know,” he said. “That’s not how you win a division.”

Still, the Rangers cling to faith they can turn things around. Burger emphasized past stretches where the club successfully flipped the script, and starter Kumar Rocker predicted that the Rangers will begin to play their best ball sometime soon.

Will that be soon enough to salvage a season slipping away? For a reeling Texas club, it’s going to have to be.

“It’s one thing after another right now,” Schumaker said. “We know we’ve got to stop the bleeding somehow, and hopefully it starts tomorrow.”