ST. LOUIS -- All good things must come to an end. Unfortunately for MacKenzie Gore and the Rangers, two things ended on Wednesday night.
Gore entered the series finale against the Cardinals off his best four-game span since being acquired by Texas last January. The Rangers entered on a season-high five-game winning streak.
Both came to an unceremonious halt in a 5-3 Cardinals win.
Gore allowed four runs on nine hits in 4 2/3 innings. He struck out five and walked three.
“He was missing arm-side early on, and then started filling up the zone when he started going glove-side, and I just think that, you know, a couple bad pitches up in the zone kind of cost him,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said.
It was not the form of his previous four starts, in which he went 2-1 with a 1.69 ERA. During that span, Gore dropped his season ERA from 5.18 to 3.96.
But the trouble started early. Gore, who had walked just six total in his previous four starts, allowed three free passes in the first inning. Alec Burleson made him pay for the control issues with an RBI single following two of the walks to give the Cardinals a 1-0 lead.
“That's how I've given up most of my runs [with walks], and we have done a better job of that, obviously, the last few starts,” Gore said. “And I think that's one pitch at a time, not trying to get, you know, two outs in one pitch … I made a bad situation worse today in the first inning.”
The Cardinals won the game of inches to reclaim the lead in the bottom of the third. Jordan Walker’s single barely cleared the top of Jake Burger’s glove and Nelson Velázquez’s double just dipped under Alejandro Osuna’s sliding attempt in left field. Both would score on Burleson’s double to give St. Louis a 3-1 lead.
Thomas Saggese’s RBI triple -- the first of his career -- ended Gore’s night in the fifth.
“That last hit will probably drive me crazy for the next few days,” Gore said.
There were positives. Even though Gore didn’t have his best stuff, he still managed to minimize the damage as the Cardinals had at least one runner in scoring position in each of his five innings.
“I don't know this for a fact, but it looked like maybe he was trying to overcook some of the balls to try to get a punchout, and then kind of left the balls up, in those kind of strikeout leverage counts, right?” Schumaker said. “The Burleson [double] was a slider; I think that was kind of chest high, and the Saggese one as well, just kind of left it up out over, and you know, big league hitters, they do damage against mistakes. And unfortunately, in the 1-2 or 0-2 counts tonight, it felt like he went for the punch, which I'm OK with, but I think he potentially could have just overcooked some of those.”
Josh Jung’s RBI single scored Kyle Higashioka to pull the Rangers even at 1-1 in the third. Jung, who drove in two runs in the Rangers’ 7-4 win on Tuesday, has seven RBIs in his last seven games.
Joc Pederson cut the deficit to 5-3 with a two-run triple in the seventh. Pederson has reached safely in six straight games.
Robby Ahlstrom had an impressive Major League debut, retiring all four batters he faced, including two punchouts.
“He was outstanding, you know, 94 to 97, throwing strikes, slider was really effective, got a big league strikeout, a couple of them,” Schumaker said. “So, I mean, that was awesome. He did a fantastic job.”
Even with the loss, the Rangers still are riding the momentum of their winning streak fueled by a lineup that is excelling in small ball. The Rangers stole four bases in the series, their most in a three-game series this season.
And offensive reinforcements are on the way with Wyatt Langford’s return imminent. Langford homered at Double-A Frisco on Wednesday.
“I think this should be part of our identity,” Schumaker said. “This should be part of, you know, how we win games, and I'm okay with Wyatt Langford hitting a home run as well, but you know Wyatt Langford can also run the bases really well. … There are some guys that we can utilize the small ball and get the big boys up to the plate.”