– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Every game for the Texas Rangers for the rest of the season is their biggest game of the year to date, and today’s must-win game was in the hands of second-year starter Kumar Rocker — and he took the mound against one of the American League’s top contenders for the Cy Young Award, as well as one of the teams Texas is jockeying with for one of the final playoff spots on offer.
Rocker held his own, and how the Rangers go into their next must-win game, tomorrow, with momentum … and a share of first place.
Rocker allowed just one run in 4 1/3 innings of work, holding the Blue Jays’ offense at bay as the Rangers defeated Toronto 7-1 inside Globe Life Park on Friday night. Texas’ win coupled with the Houston’s loss at home to Atlanta moved the Rangers into a first-place tie with the Astros for first place in the American League West division at 77-77 with eight games remaining for both teams. (Houston owns the tiebreaker over Texas if the two were to finish tied atop the division standings.)
The Rangers scored all the runs they needed in the second inning after a throwing error by shortstop Ernie Clement scored the first two runs of the game. A sacrifice fly from Ezequiel Duran and a run-scoring double from Corey Seager capped off the four-run second for Texas.
Nicky Lopez and Wyatt Langford each had two hits while Jake Burger drove in two runs, including on a double in the eighth to score Langford, to raise his team-leading RBI total to 86.
Rocker allowed only three hits while recording 1-2-3 innings in the first, third and fourth innings, the second of those coming after the Rangers’ four-run outburst. After walking the first two batters in the fifth, Rocker got Ernie Clement to hit into a force before Myles Straw’s run-scoring double brought in the first run of the game for the Blue Jays while also ending Rocker’s evening as Texas went to the bullpen.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Friday evening’s game, with photos taken by ALOST photo editor Ross James. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page. Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 30 pictures in total.
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