ARLINGTON -- Sure, every loss matters in September. But these past two defeats maybe hurt the Rangers even more than most.
For the second day in a row, a Rangers comeback attempt against the Rays fell just short. On Saturday, Texas took Tampa Bay to extra innings with a late comeback to tie it, but ultimately fell, 6-3, after closer Jacob Latz gave up a rare home run in the top of the 10th inning.
This is the first time the Rangers have lost back-to-back home games since July 4-5 against the Tigers.
“Tonight was a very winnable game, in my opinion,” said manager Skip Schumaker.
“We are doing whatever we can to win,” he added later. “We're going to do whatever we can to try to get this right because time's running out here. We gotta start collecting some wins because we're digging ourselves a little bit of a hole right now. We gotta fight out of it.”
It's certainly the kind of game the Rangers could have won. And maybe should have. The ingredients were there. Jacob deGrom on the mound, Latz ready to close it out and the offense making a rare comeback attempt two days in a row.
deGrom put the Rangers in a hole early with a pair of homers to Junior Caminero in the first inning and Richie Palacios in the fifth. But he turned in a quality start with six innings of two-run ball to put Texas in a position to make a comeback.
Instead, the reliable Latz shouldered his first loss since April 10 at the Dodgers (now 3-2). The Rangers went 40-3 in Latz’s 43 appearances between that defeat and Saturday, with Latz posting a 1.76 ERA, three wins and 28 saves during that span.
“They all sting, of course,” Latz said. “Everyone feels the moments now a little bit more than at the beginning of the year. That's just the nature of the time. For me personally, I have a new opportunity tomorrow, so try to right the ship and turn the page as quickly as we can. It sucks because we've been fighting hard the last couple games, especially. To be on the wrong side of things hurts. But there's still baseball left, and we have to keep going.”
The Rangers clubhouse is well aware of the position they’re in.
Fighting is the only way they’ll get out of it, though they don’t particularly control their own destiny at this point. The Rangers remain three games behind the Astros in the AL West and two back of the Blue Jays for the final AL Wild Card spot.
The goal is simply to win every game possible going forward.
“That’s the reality of it,” deGrom said. “We know what our record is. We know we gotta win quite a bit. We gotta play really good baseball to get in this. I think we can do it. It's keeping that positive mindset. Like we said, this one stings. It was a close game, and we weren't able to win it. We gotta show up tomorrow and go from there.
“That's all you can do. Obviously, I've said it throughout the year, there's games we wish we could have back as a whole. There's games I wish I could have back. But reality is we're at where we're at, and we have to play really good baseball to end the season to have a chance.”