Rangers Manager Defends Players After Tuesday's Defensive Collapse

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers defense has been good this season, manager Skip Schumaker said Wednesday. His comments came a day after three New York Mets runs scored on misplays in a 6-3 loss.

Brandon Nimmo was charged with the only Texas error. The loss dropped the Rangers into a tie with the Houston Astros atop the American League West at 78-79. Houston holds the tiebreaker after winning the season series 9-4.

Schumaker spoke on The Skip Schumaker Show, the pregame segment Rangers Sports Network posts before games. In a separate answer about MacKenzie Gore’s five innings, he said Texas did not play clean behind the left-hander.

Wednesday’s lineup moves Ezequiel Duran from center field to third base. Josh Jung shifts from third base to designated hitter.

“I think they’ve been good because we’ve been putting a number of guys in different positions that they’ve really never played before,” Schumaker said. “Yesterday was an outlier game, in my opinion. It just wasn’t a good game really in any facet of the game after MacKenzie gutted out that performance. We had some miscues that were some miscommunication kind of stuff and maybe a mental blunder here and there.”

“But those guys, the great thing about it is those guys own it,” Schumaker continued. “They know what they did wrong. They’re pros. And my guess is they’ll fix it and it won’t happen again tonight. And that’s just who they are because they’re pros and they go about it the right way. And they’re going to fix it and feel really good about tonight’s game.”

Three Mets Runs Scored On Texas Rangers Misplays

Francisco Alvarez led off the third inning with a double and moved to third on a groundout. Juan Soto then singled up the middle on a ball that got past Justin Foscue at second base, and New York led 1-0.

In the fourth, Carson Benge hit a ground-rule double. Alvarez sent a ball into the gap that ricocheted off the heel of Nimmo’s glove as Duran converged from center field. Benge scored, and Nimmo was charged with the error.

Texas trailed 4-3 in the sixth when Luis Torrens popped up in foul territory with Alvarez on third. First baseman Jake Burger made the catch and double-pumped, and Alvarez scored to make it 5-3.

Skip Schumaker And Jake Burger After Tuesday’s Loss

The Mets play fundamentally sound baseball, Schumaker said after Tuesday’s game. Texas made a couple of miscues, he said, and they were part of the reason the Rangers lost.

“Even if Foscue catches that ball, I don’t think he gets Soto,” Schumaker said. “Having said that, I do think that potentially he could have got that ball but in a dive or whatever saved it and kept it inside in the infield. It was first and third. I still think the run scores.”

“So that one’s a different play to me than the other ones,” Schumaker continued. “It probably didn’t look great, but I think the run still scores. The other two I feel like are just a little bit of communication lapses and stuff that we should be… we’ve been good at and just happened tonight, unfortunately.”

Burger said Texas should focus on nobody but itself with five games left. The Rangers’ pitchers have been giving them a chance every night, he said.

“It’s terrible,” Burger said. “Obviously, our pitchers are giving us a chance every night, and we got to pick them up. Can’t expect to win the division when we’re playing like that, on three obviously separate occasions, in my opinion.”

“It sucks. It’s behind us, though,” Burger continued. “We got to flush it and focus on tomorrow. I don’t think that’s who we are.”

Cody Bradford starts for Texas on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. CT against Mets rookie right-hander Nolan McLean. The series ends Thursday at 1:35 p.m. CT.