ARLINGTON — It’s a Father’s Day miracle. The Texas Rangers swept a team for the first time in over a month.
The Rangers beat the Chicago White Sox 2-1 Sunday at Globe Life Field to secure their first sweep since May 12-14 vs. the Colorado Rockies. They’ve won six of the seven games that they played in the last calendar week and moved from five games under .500 to an even 36-36 record.
Here’s how it happened.
The story: The Rangers’ pitching staff, which has become more depleted on a week-by-week basis, continued to stand on its head. Texas recalled Kumar Rocker to start in Tyler Mahle’s place and got five shutout innings out of the rookie. The bullpen — which has been worked incredibly hard in the last week and had to combine to make multiple starts — allowed just one run in the final four innings to complete the sweep.
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The moment(s) that made the game: There were two. Credit to the aforementioned bullpen.
Rangers right-handed reliever Jacob Webb left runners on the corners with one out in the seventh inning for Cole Winn. The Rangers escaped the jam to maintain a one-run lead.
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Catcher Kyle Higashioka threw Josh Rojas out at second base on a steal attempt for the inning’s second out. Winn, a right-hander, froze leadoff hitter Mike Tauchman with a called strike three fastball for the inning’s third out.
Consider it a warmup for Winn. He stranded runners at second and third base in the eighth inning when he got Edgar Quero to hit into an inning-ending lineout. The 25-year-old has not allowed a run in 10 2/3 innings this season.
The mound star: Rocker was reassigned to Triple-A Round Rock after his previous big league start to continue his development. The plan changed after another Rangers starter landed on the injured list.
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Rocker, though, gave the Rangers reason to consider further development at the major league level. The 25-year-old right-hander allowed just four hits and one walk in five scoreless innings. He struck out six batters, showed poise with runners on base and mixed his pitches in a way that he never had before in the big leagues.
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The plate star: Ezequiel Duran started at third base Sunday in place of Josh Jung (mental break) and was the only Rangers batter with multiple hits.
The 26-year-old drove in the Rangers’ first run with a second-inning double vs. Chicago right-hander Aaron Civale that scored Adolis García to make it 1-0. He had another double in the eighth inning that moved García to third base. They were hit second and third extra base hits of the season, respectively, and each carried an exit velocity of 100-plus mph. Duran also made a slick barehand grab at third base to throw Chase Meidroth out at first base in the third inning.
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