MINNEAPOLIS — With two games left and two middle-of-the-order bats sidelined, the Rangers found their push from the bottom of the card Saturday. Danny Jansen homered, Jake Burger added a solo shot, and Texas beat the Twins 6-2 to carry the American League West race into the final day of the regular season.
The result
Texas improved to 80-81 and moved one-half game ahead of Houston, which stood at 79-81 entering its own must-win game against the Athletics in West Sacramento. The Astros could pull even by the end of Saturday, but the division will be decided Sunday either way. Houston holds the head-to-head tiebreaker after taking the season series.
The Rangers had entered the weekend without Joc Pederson and Josh Jung, their two most productive hitters over the season. Pederson suffered a fractured left hand, while Jung was lost with a broken right wrist, leaving Texas short-handed at the most consequential point on the calendar.
That made Saturday’s contribution from the lower half especially important. Nicky Lopez, Jansen, Evan Carter and Alejandro Osuna, along with pinch-hitters Cody Freeman and Justin Foscue, combined to go 7-for-15 with a walk and four RBIs. Jansen supplied one of the club’s two home runs, and Burger’s fifth-inning solo homer provided another lift from the cleanup spot.
Lopez exited early because of a left ankle/heel issue, another concern for a club already trying to patch together its lineup.
Manager Skip Schumaker has spent the past month asking his key players to carry their share. But with Pederson and Jung unavailable, he said the Rangers cannot wait for one player to replace either absent bat.
“You can be emotional when it happens,” Schumaker said of losing the No. 1 and No. 3 hitters. “But there are two games remaining, and you have to turn the page quickly. It may sound cold, but it is next man up. Somebody has to answer the call for these two days.”
Saturday offered the kind of collective response he had been seeking. Schumaker said players can feel pressure when they want to deliver for injured teammates, but the Rangers need production throughout the lineup rather than a single replacement hero.
“It has to be all nine guys,” Schumaker said. “If we put everything on one player to take Josh’s place or Joc’s place, that is not going to work.”
Texas now has one regular-season game left to protect its narrow division position, with the injured regulars still unavailable and the rest of the clubhouse asked to keep extending the season.
