Rangers gallop into July with high vibes despite injury blows

CLEVELAND -- On Wednesday, the Texas Rangers’ six-game winning streak came to an end with a 9-4 loss to the Cleveland Guardians at Progressive Field.

But that loss doesn’t take away from what manager Skip Schumaker called the “collective effort” from his team on a 10-game road trip where the Rangers posted a 7-3 record despite losing Wyatt Langford, Brandon Nimmo and Corey Seager to injury at various points on the trip.

“I ask [this team] for relentless competitive effort everyday,’ Schumaker said. “You can’t teach skill until you have the effort, and we’ve gotten the effort. That’s all you can ask for. The coaches have done a really good job preparing this year, the farm system has done a really good job and the front office has done a really good job acquiring guys who can help us fill in the gaps until everyone’s healthy.”

That theme was evident in every game in the Rangers’ series against Cleveland. On Monday, Chris Paddack covered for the Rangers’ depleted rotation by eating four innings after getting signed off the street. On Tuesday, it took an entire team effort to pick up the win after Seager was pinch-hit for for in the first inning due to a back injury that resulted in him going on the injured list.

At the start of the series, it looked like guys like Cameron Cauley and Nicky Lopez would make more of an impact off the bench. But that changed thanks to Nimmo and Seager missing the entire series.

“They could have looked around the room and saw the big guys hurt and felt sorry for themselves, but instead they kind of flipped the script,” Schumaker said.

For Schumaker, those performances are another example of his team’s collective effort.

“It’s collectively filling in for Wyatt, Corey and Brandon,” he said. “If you think you’re going to fill in for Corey Seager by yourself you’re crazy. You have to be in the mindset of doing whatever you can to help the team win.”

While the Rangers had that mindset on Wednesday, they played from behind for almost the entire game after the Guardians put up a five-spot on MacKenzie Gore in the second inning thanks to a sacrifice bunt from Austin Hedges, a wild pitch and three-run homer from David Fry.

Gore felt the inning came undone when he threw home on Hedges’ bunt instead of going to first, which he said was his initial plan before he changed it at the last minute.

“When you don’t field a bunt, weird things happen,” Gore said.

Cleveland added another run in the seventh inning off Cole Winn thanks to a leadoff triple from Steven Kwan and an RBI single from Chase DeLauter.

Even if the Rangers’ didn’t produce enough offense to win on Wednesday, the depth of the team’s roster was on full display as they chipped away at Cleveland’s lead.

In the third inning, they scraped a run across on a Kyle Higashioka walk. Two innings later, they added two more runs on an Elias Díaz groundout and Nicky Lopez double. Díaz also added a run in the eighth with a Statcast-projected 402-foot home run.

“We had a chance to win today because of [guys] like Lopez, Díaz and Josh Smith,” Schumaker said. “They’ve provided a spark at a time when it could have gone the other way.”

The conclusion of the Rangers’ incredible road trip sets up a nine-game homestand before the All-Star break, and a second half where they play more home games than road games.

The past 10 days have proven the Rangers can win on the road; now they'll need to show they can bring that momentum back to GloBe Life Field.

“We need to take advantage of it and win every series. That should be the goal,” third baseman Josh Jung said. “That’s what good teams do.”

While Jung and his teammates weren’t able to close out the trip with a win on Wednesday, they boarded their flight out of Cleveland with a winning record and in a tie for first place in the American League West.

There are worse positions to be in at the start of July.

“We’re in it," Schumaker said. "We’re more than in it. We feel like this is who we should have been a couple months ago. This is what you’re hoping for at the midway point. That’s all you can ask for."