Rangers Offense Explodes for Biggest Performance of Season in Angels Finale

Per MLB.com, the last time the Rangers scored 20 or more runs in a game was on July 25, 2011, against the Minnesota Twins. The Rangers also had 20 runs and 22 hits in that game, and the 22 hits on Wednesday were the most since that Twins game.

It’s not even close to the Rangers’ highest-scoring game in history. The anniversary of that game was last week, a 30-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 22, 2007.

Four different Rangers had home runs on Wednesday. Right fielder Adolis Garcia hit a three-run home run in the first. In the second, Joc Pederson followed with a three-run shot of his own. In the fourth inning, shortstop Corey Seager hit a two-run home run. All three of those were off Angels starter Jack Kochanowicz (3-11), who took the loss and allowed 11 Rangers runs on nine hits in 3.1 innings.

Kyle Higashioka hit Texas’ fourth home run, a three-run shot off Oswald Peraza in the seventh inning. That was part of an eight-run seventh inning for Texas, which wrapped up the scoring in the contest.

Garcia led the way with four hits, along with five RBI and three runs. Josh Jung didn’t homer, but he did have three hits. Seager, Wyatt Langford, Ezequiel Duran, Pederson and Higashioka each had two hits. Josh Smith, Michael Helman, Rowdy Tellez, Cody Freeman and Alejandro Osuna each had one hit. Freeman was the only Rangers player that didn’t score.

Rangers Critical Road Trip

Texas is off on Thursday and will travel to Sacramento to take on the Athletics in a three-game series that starts on Friday. Once that series wraps up on Sunday, the Rangers head to Arizona to face the Diamondbacks in a three-game series that starts on Monday. It offers Texas a critical opportunity, and perhaps its last opportunity, to pick up ground in the AL Wild Card race.

Texas enters the weekend 4.5 games out of the final wild card berth, which is currently held by AL West rival Seattle. The Mariners own the tiebreaker over the Rangers, so if Texas were to put together a hot streak, it would have to overtake Seattle to claim the wild card berth. It's a long shot, but the Rangers still have a shot as September approaches.