Elias Diaz accounted for two of Texas' five runs before the Los Angeles Angels put a ball in the seats.
ESPN's box score lists Diaz, the Rangers catcher, at two at-bats, one run, one hit, two RBI, one home run, zero walks, and zero strikeouts, plus a sacrifice fly. His season line after the game sat at .234/.252/.369 with 22 RBI.
The Associated Press recap of Sunday's 5-3 win at Globe Life Field credited solo homers from Ezequiel Duran and Diaz, along with six scoreless innings from Cal Quantrill, as Texas moved into a tie with the Houston Astros for first in the AL West at 65-66.
Second-inning fly ball, then 421 feet in the fifth
ESPN's scoring play puts Diaz's first RBI in the second inning: a sacrifice fly to center that scored Cody Freeman and made it 3-0. Freeman had just tripled to center, his first triple of the season, to score Logan O'Hoppe after Duran's 403-foot homer (his 14th) opened the inning at 1-0.
In the fifth, Diaz homered to left-center, 421 feet, off Yusei Kikuchi, ESPN's play-by-play shows, for a 4-0 lead. The AP called it his sixth home run of the season. Brandon Nimmo followed with a sacrifice fly to center that scored Corey Seager and pushed the lead to 5-0, with Wyatt Langford going to third.
MLB.com noted that Texas lifted multiple sacrifice flies for just the third time this season and went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position while finishing with five runs on eight hits.
Manager Skip Schumaker told MLB.com the middle of the order was "really good" and that Seager and Langford "were fantastic today, but the bottom of the order really helped out as well. I think that's the main difference. We just didn't rely on the top."
A 5-0 lead that held at 5-3
MLB.com wrote that Texas had scored two or fewer runs in four straight games entering Sunday, as well as five of its last six and eight of its last 12. Diaz's two-RBI day sat in that drought: a catcher who supplied a sacrifice fly and a 421-foot homer on a night the lineup went 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.
Langford finished 2-for-3 with a double, ESPN shows. Seager was hit by a pitch from reliever Sammy Peralta and later scored on Nimmo's fly.
