ARLINGTON -- The Rangers scored four runs Wednesday without hitting a home run and with just one hit in 13 at-bats with runners in scoring position.
That's normally not a game the Rangers are able to win, but they did just that Wednesday night. The Rangers were able to manufacture enough runs for starter Yu Darvish and a well-rested bullpen for a 4-3 victory over the Padres at Globe Life Park.
"Sometimes you need games like that ... the ability to kind of manufacture a run," Rangers manager Jeff Banister said. "It wasn't necessarily pretty offensively. I think good things happen when you put good at-bats together. More than anything else, I think the story more is how the pitchers showed up, some defense that we played."
The Rangers had a fully rested bullpen following A.J. Griffin's shutout Tuesday in San Diego, and they were ready to roll after Darvish threw 96 pitches in allowing three runs over six innings.
"I thought it was a very solid outing for Yu," Banister said. "The pitch count, we weren't going to push it. We had this one tabbed as we're going to back off a bit and not push him over that 100 mark."

Jeremy Jeffress pitched a scoreless seventh to get the win. Alex Claudio and Keone Kela combined for a scoreless eighth, and Matt Bush shut it down in the ninth for only his second save. Rangers relievers were 1-2 with a 5.84 ERA and three blown saves on their last road trip.
"We had a couple of conversations in San Diego," Jeffress said. "The bullpen just needs to get back to our strengths and our stuff will do the job. That's what our bullpen is about."

The victory was only the Rangers' third in 12 games in which they did not hit a home run, and they are 6-13 in games in which they have one or zero hits with runners in scoring position. They are also 3-7 in one-run games and 4-15 when their offense scores four runs or less.
To sum it up: The Rangers need to win games like this, and they haven't been.
"The most important thing is to simplify everything," DeShields said. "Try to move runners over when you have the opportunity, guy at third, do what you can to get him in. We are in a spot where we will take anything we can get."
The Rangers scored one run in the first when Shin-Soo Choo led off with a base hit, went to third on Elvis Andrus' hit-and-run single and scored on a wild pitch. With the Rangers trailing 3-1 in the fifth inning, Choo drove in a run on a single, and DeShields scored the tying run from third base on a balk by Padres starter Luis Perdomo.

The go-ahead run scored in the seventh on a couple of walks and a throwing error by second baseman Yangervis Solarte as the Padres attempted to turn an inning-ending double play.