Langford's early return saves Rangers with walk-off winner

ARLINGTON -- A win is a win.

But man, that one was harder than it needed to be.

Maybe it was just setting up Wyatt Langford for his triumphant return to the lineup. Langford, who was activated off the injured list on Thursday afternoon, hit a walk-off RBI single to stave off the Angels, 7-6, and secure a series victory over a division rival.

When Langford landed on the injured list on June 28 with a Grade 2 hamstring strain, both he and the Rangers were prepared for him to return well after the All-Star break.

With four games remaining, all against American League West opponents, the Rangers got a big boost to their lineup with Langford returning for Thursday's series finale against the Angels at Globe Life Field.

Langford did not go on a rehab assignment, but took live batting practice on Wednesday after additional scans showed a clean bill of health on the hamstring.

“He's had four days of no issues at all,” said Rangers manager Skip Schumaker prior to the game. “Everything checked out. I met with him again last night and this morning. He feels really good, ready to be activated. There wasn't any reason for us to feel like he wasn't ready to start today. He’ll DH, obviously, with the left-hander [Reid Detmers] pitching today. We felt like this was the best-case scenario.”

Langford said he lobbied Schumaker and the staff to be activated this week, but Schumaker added that they wanted to make sure he was fully healthy before bringing him back into the starting lineup.

“We would never put his health in jeopardy based on where we're at,” Schumaker said. “If he didn't feel like he could go, he would not go. We would not have pushed him.”

Since going 7-3 on the last 10-game road trip, the Rangers lost three of the first five games of the homestand while notably missing their three best hitters in Langford, Corey Seager (back) and Josh Jung (knee).

But Jung and Langford returned to the lineup on Thursday, while Seager is expected to remain sidelined until after the All-Star break.

“That was part of the reason why I wanted to get back -- these are games in the division,” Langford said. “But at the same time, we definitely want to be smart, because it's not worth it if you get hurt again. All of us want to be smart. We want to be out there every day, but just got to be smart about it. I'm definitely glad that I'm in there and they allowed me to be.”

The Rangers had a lead as large as five runs at one point, thanks to home runs from Brandon Nimmo, Ezequiel Duran and Justin Foscue, as well as a Foscue RBI double in the bottom of the sixth.

Texas co-ace Nathan Eovaldi was cruising for much of the evening with minimal stress outside of the third inning, when the Angels first got on the board. But he wasn’t able to record an out in the seventh inning, with runners reaching on a catcher's interference, a walk and a single to end his night.

In the end, the Angels sent 10 batters to the plate in the seventh, scoring five runs on four hits, two walks and an error.

Tyler Alexander, Jacob Latz and Cole Winn held the Angels scoreless in the eighth and ninth, setting Langford up for his first hit since his return: a long single to score Alejandro Osuna from second base.

After a slow start to the season, Langford has bounced back -- mostly thanks to a June in which he hit .317 with a 1.005 OPS following his first activation from the injured list.

“We've been playing pretty good the last really month or two,” Langford said. “We obviously want to keep winning and get above [.500] and keep pushing that record. But I feel like we're playing pretty good and these last four games are pretty important going into the break. We’re trying to go out there and win today.”