The Rangers’ Top Three Never Arrived Against the Mets

Lineup production was the Rangers’ problem Wednesday night, and the arithmetic is unusually blunt: Wyatt Langford, Corey Seager and Josh Jung combined for one hit in 12 at-bats, drew no walks and scored no runs.

That trio occupied the top three spots in Texas’ order against the Mets at Globe Life Field, where New York won 7-2. The Rangers did find a tying rally in the fifth, but the game was tied only from the end of that inning until Marcus Semien’s solo home run in the eighth. Texas’ lower portion created an opening; the top never helped widen it.

Jung’s single in the ninth was the trio’s lone hit, arriving after New York had taken a five-run lead. He reached on a sharp grounder against Cionel Pérez, but Brandon Nimmo grounded into a force play and Ezequiel Duran followed with another. Jung’s hit counts, but its timing made it an accounting note rather than a chance to reshape the game.

The other two spots were equally quiet in more familiar fashion. Langford went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Seager also went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Jung’s first three plate appearances ended with a groundout, a flyout and another groundout before the ninth-inning single. Across 12 at-bats, the three produced no walks, no runs and just one hit.

A rally from elsewhere

Texas’ fifth-inning response came largely from hitters below that top group. Brandon Nimmo opened with a single, and Duran’s groundout moved him to second. Jake Burger then singled him home. Nicky Lopez followed with another single, and Danny Jansen’s walk loaded the bases.

Evan Carter’s grounder supplied the tying run through a force play. Burger scored, Lopez moved to third and Carter reached first, while Jansen was retired at second. Langford then popped out to Francisco Lindor, ending the inning before the Rangers could take the lead.

There was substance in that sequence. Burger finished 1-for-3 with an RBI and a run, Lopez went 1-for-3, and Jansen reached once without a hit. Carter drove in a run despite going 0-for-3.

The rally used three singles, a walk and a force play to erase a 2-0 deficit. It was not a fluke inning; it was also the only inning in which Texas produced multiple hits.

The distinction became important immediately. After reaching 2-2, the Rangers failed to put another batter on base in the sixth, seventh or eighth innings. Seager and Jung made outs in the sixth.

Duran, Burger and Lopez went down in the seventh. Jansen, Carter and Langford did the same in the eighth. A tie game is useful only while both teams are still operating inside it, and Texas’ offense went dormant at precisely that point.

Nolan McLean deserves credit for holding the line long enough for the Mets to win a different kind of game. New York’s starter worked seven innings, allowing three hits and two earned runs with five strikeouts and one walk. Both Texas runs came in the fifth, and McLean finished that inning without allowing the rally to become something larger.

He left after seven with the score still tied 2-2.

Devin Williams followed with a scoreless bottom of the eighth, protecting the lead New York had just taken. Semien broke the tie in the top of the eighth with a solo homer off Jacob Latz, giving New York its first lead since Soto’s two-run blast in the third.

The ninth turned a one-run game into a comfortable Mets victory. Jordan Montgomery retired A.J. Ewing, then allowed Nick Morabito’s single and Lindor’s groundout, which moved Morabito to second.

Montgomery intentionally walked Juan Soto. Trevor Williams entered, Bo Bichette walked, and Brett Baty hit a grand slam. The decisive blow required runners to accumulate first, but Baty supplied the damage that made the final margin so large.

New York’s offense was not uniformly dominant. Soto had one hit, yet his homer, three walks and two runs made him an ongoing presence. Semien’s solo shot changed the score, and Baty turned his only at-bat into four RBI. The Mets scored seven runs on eight hits, with the damage concentrated in three homers.

Texas did not need Langford, Seager and Jung to produce every inning. It needed that group to add something after the fifth-inning recovery, or at least to keep the lineup moving while the score remained level. Instead, the supporting hitters tied the game and the top three disappeared until Jung’s ninth-inning single, when the Mets had already settled the argument.

Sources

Official game data

Official game box score