ARLINGTON – Three weeks ago, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker reiterated his belief that Wyatt Langford is an MVP-caliber player.
Time will tell if he lives up to those kinds of standards, but there is no disputing the impact he had in the Texas lineup Friday.
A day after a walk-off base hit, Langford served as the instigator of the Rangers’ decisive eighth inning.
The American League West frontrunning Rangers broke a tie by erupting for four runs in the inning, using Langford’s leadoff home run as a catalyst and Jake Burger’s three-run blast as the final nail in the coffin to defeat the archrival Astros, 7-3, in a series opener on Friday.
Langford, who was activated off the injured list the day before, took a 1-0 pitch from Bryan King deep to left to give Texas a lead. Burger followed a walk to Josh Jung and a base hit by Brandon Nimmo with his home run to left-center field.
“I just don't want it to get lost how hard this is to come off the IL and then produce in late, high-leverage innings and provide the walk-off, and then obviously the big home run. It's not as easy as he's making that look,” Schumaker said. “We don't win those two games without him.”
The victory marked the Rangers’ 10th in their past 14 games.
Right-hander Cole Winn (5-2), who pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings, earned the victory. Lefty Tyler Alexander pitched around a leadoff hit in the ninth to close things out.
The home run was Langford’s ninth of the season. He is hitting .333 over his past 28 games and has reached base in 31 of his past 33 games, including 12 straight. Burger’s homer was his 16th of the season.
Texas didn’t let Cal Quantrill’s quality start go to waste. The right-hander, inserted into the starting rotation in place of Jack Leiter (who is on the injured list after undergoing right ankle arthroscopic surgery), gave up one run over a season-high six innings.
Making his fourth consecutive start, Quantrill gave up five hits while walking one and striking out one. His only slip was a cutter to Yordan Alvarez, who got his money’s worth on the swing, driving the ball 455 feet into the right-center-field stands. The home run was Alvarez’s 30th home run this season and 200th of his career. The shot made him the second-fastest Astro to reach 30 home runs in a season – 96 games in – trailing only Jeff Bagwell’s 1999 (91).
Still, in his past four starts, Quantrill has a 2.12 ERA. He has also struck out nine against three walks, with a 0.94 WHIP. Moreover, he’s been stretched longer and longer. In the first of the starts, he threw 35 pitches. He threw a season-high 79 on Friday, following outings of 55 and 66.
“We've been building to it for the last two and a half weeks or so,” Quantrill said. “I knew I was still going to have a pitch count today, but it was enough to do six, so that was the goal. I felt good. I still felt strong in the sixth. I think that I'm probably ready to go a full pitch count next time, but this is the way you get there and just a bonus that we were official today, and we were able to get through six.”
Quantrill had good defense behind him, too. Langford doubled up Jeremy Peña off a flyout in the top of the first, erasing the leadoff baserunner at second to end the inning. Jung made a backhanded snare of a hard grounder to his right to throw out Brice Matthews at first in the fifth.
“For him to come up and do what he's been doing … I mean, his high before he started in the rotation was like 35 pitches, and he gave us 80 like four starts later. Incredible. And we're very lucky to have him,” Schumaker said.
Tasked with protecting a two-run lead to start the seventh, right-hander Chris Martin surrendered it.
Houston’s LaMonte Wade Jr. reached on a leadoff base hit. With one out, Yainer Diaz launched a two-run home run 415 feet to left to tie the game.
Winn recorded the last out in the seventh and worked a perfect eighth to set up the Rangers’ half of the inning.
After Langford’s leadoff homer to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead, Jung followed with a walk, and Nimmo singled.
Burger was looking for a fastball on the first pitch, and he got it, sending the ball 407 feet to add some insurance runs for a never-give-up Rangers squad.
“I know Wyatt's home run was great, but that Burger home run was obviously fantastic,” Schumaker said. “We knew the way that our 'pen was set up without [Jacob] Latz and [Peyton] Gray that we needed to just keep adding on, just in case.”
The Rangers are now 23-15 (.595) in their last 38 games, an American League best during the span.
“I think this is who we are,” Burger said. “It's something to keep building on. Obviously, look at the last road trip too, and we had some really good wins and team wins there. I feel like we're playing playoff baseball in July.”