“We’ve talked about it before, and we will talk more,” Bochy said. It presents a conundrum for Bochy and third base coach Tony Beasley: Where exactly is the line between being aggressive and foolhardy on the bases? On the other, they lead the majors in the percentage of times a baserunner ends up scoring. It is one fewer than they had all last season. It was an MLB-high 13th out for the Rangers at home plate this season. Higashioka set up in front of home plate with both feet in foul territory. Lowe tried to score from second on Josh Jung’s two-out single to right in the first against Luis Severino, but Jake Bauers made a solid throw home and Kyle Higashioka made an easy play on Lowe. And the one hit led to Nathaniel Lowe being thrown out at home to end the first inning, highlighting what may qualify as a weakness for this team: Baserunning. That included a 1-for-9 performance Saturday. They’ve left at least 10 men on base six times in the last two weeks. They’ve also gone a more perfunctory 12-9 this month and are 7-9 since a five-game win streak to start it off. Despite a June in which their schedule has been littered with potential playoff teams such as the beasts of the East, the Yankees, Tampa Bay, and Toronto, they had doubled their lead in the AL West to a season-high 6.5 games entering Saturday. The Rangers have been elite at almost every aspect of the game. On Saturday, relievers Grant Anderson and Joe Barlow combined for two more scoreless innings. Even the bullpen, which had been the weakest link, has compiled a 3.29 ERA in the last month. They began the day averaging the most runs per game in the majors, leading in defensive runs saved and with the sixth-best ERA. The Rangers do a lot of things really well. But they just pitched out of those situations. “We had the right guys up there late in the ballgame in couple of innings. “The big hit just eluded us,” manager Bruce Bochy said. The pitch was out of the zone, as if that was any consolation. It was Plano West’s Billy McKinney, property of the Rangers for nine days over the Thanksgiving holiday in 2021, who clubbed a full-count fastball down and in into the right-field seats in the fourth inning for the difference.
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