'It was a circus out there': Rangers overcome odds, wind to secure series split

WEST SACRAMENTO -- The wind giveth and the wind taketh away.

The Rangers looked to be well on their way to edging out a victory over the A’s on Thursday afternoon after Josh Jung hit a wind-assisted two-run home run in the top of the seventh inning. But Texas ran into some wind trouble of their own, giving the A’s a pair of wind-aided hits in the bottom of the eighth that led to three runs.

“It was a circus out there,” Jung said.

The 18 mph winds were no match for some Rangers small ball in the top of the ninth, in which Texas sent all nine hitters to the plate to score four runs and roll to a 9-6 victory at Sutter Health Park to secure a series split with the A’s.

“I just think that they played nine innings no matter what,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “They play hard and it doesn't matter what the score is. There's always a fighting chance. I'm just proud of these guys. They just never give up. It was pretty demoralizing, how that was going. It could have been a demoralizing flight, quite honestly. That's not easy to do, so this is a much happier flight, for sure.”

Here are three turning points of the game:

7th inning: Josh Jung home run
Rangers: 79% win probability

Jung finished a triple shy of the cycle in the win, continuing his hot April. His seventh-inning homer put the Rangers up 5-3 at the time. Despite the gusting winds, the game was still relatively normal to that point.

After going hitless in the first series of the season in Philadelphia, Jung is now slashing .375/.444/.550 in April.

“He had a day off in Baltimore [on March 31], and since then, he's been on fire,” Schumaker said. “He's using the whole field, he has been playing good defense. This is who I remember Josh being a couple years ago when he destroyed us when I was on another team. It's nice to have him in the middle of the order. It creates length, and it's just nice to see him hot again.”

8th inning: Nick Kurtz’s wind-aided double
A’s: 86% win probability

Jakob Junis returned in the eighth inning after recording the final two outs of the previous frame, but immediately got himself in a pickle. He allowed a leadoff single to Lawrence Butler -- which Ezequiel Duran lost in the sun -- and a two-out double to Jeff McNeil before Schumaker turned to Jacob Latz to potentially get the final four outs of the game.

But things don’t always go the way you plan.

Schumaker intentionally walked Shea Langeliers after lamenting not doing so in Wednesday night’s loss, leaving Latz for the left-on-left matchup with Nick Kurtz. It appeared as if Kurtz hit a routine popup to Wyatt Langford in left field before the ball got caught in a vortex where Langford could not corral it.

The ball -- which had an expected batting average of .020 -- fell in shallow left field and all three runs scored to give the A’s a 6-5 lead.

“That was not an easy game to play in,” Schumaker said. “I played in a lot of games in Wrigley Field with wind, and this was maybe the worst I've ever been around, playing wise. That is not easy. There were some big outs, there were some tough plays, there were some big hits. Everything that you could think of happened in that game. That was one of the crazier games I've been a part of. Some good baseball. There's some bad baseball. There was everything in between.”

9th inning: Ezequiel Duran single
Rangers: 97% win probability

The Rangers fought back quickly in the top of the ninth with a pair of singles from Jake Burger and Jung and a bunt from Kyle Higashioka that would tie the game at 6 thanks to an Athletics error. Joc Pederson collected an RBI single before Duran’s own two-run single gave the Rangers a three-run cushion.

“No one was going up there trying to be the hero,” Jung said. “Just take what the game gives you, and put together winning at-bats. Especially after the devastating [eighth]. Again, circus out there. You never know what's going to happen with those balls. But we just put the little things together. That’s all we’re looking for.”

Wyatt Langford throwing water jugs
Win probability: priceless

“Wyatt threw some water jugs around and got the boys fired up,” Jung told Rangers sideline reporter Laura Stickells on the Rangers Sports Network postgame show.

Between the bottom of the eighth and the top of the ninth, Langford allegedly tossed water jugs around the dugout in frustration. But it was the tension-releasing moment that the Rangers needed to spark the rally shortly thereafter.

“I think everybody was kind of like calmed down a little bit,” Jung said with a laugh in the clubhouse. “He kind of did it for all of us, probably. We were frustrated, but then we're just laughing. It's like one jug goes, and then the next goes, too.”