The baseball left the bat to the opposite field and traveled 382 feet. ESPN's scoring play has the time stamp in the third inning, Corey Seager versus Andrew Alvarez, a home run to left-center, and the first run of a night that ended 2-0.
That swing is The Hit That Counted. Texas went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base, per ESPN's box score and the Associated Press recap. The Rangers scored twice.
One of those runs was Seager's 13th homer. The other was a sacrifice fly in the eighth. In a game Jacob deGrom and three relievers turned into a combined one-hitter, a solo shot in the third was the entire lead for five innings.
Opposite field, off Alvarez, 2-2
Alvarez took the loss, 2-5, after five innings, four hits, one earned run, three walks, and five strikeouts, ESPN's pitching table shows. Seager's homer was the run. The same box lists a Seager double off Alvarez, part of a 2-for-4 night that also produced his 31st RBI.
Two of Texas' six hits belonged to him. The rest of the order spent the evening putting men on and leaving them there.
ESPN's RISP log is blunt: Nimmo, Seager himself, Jansen (twice), Burger (twice), Kelenic, Freeman, and Carter (twice) all came up with runners in scoring position and did not get the ball out of the infield or over the fence. A 2-for-4 with a double and a homer can still include an 0-for-1 in that column. The homer did not need a runner.
That is why it counted.
The ballpark was Globe Life Field. The Nationals, listed at 61-68 on ESPN's board, brought the majors' highest-scoring offense into the series, the AP said, and still were shut out for a fifth time this season and a second time in three games. A 382-foot opposite-field fly that leaves the yard is the kind of run that offense never answered.
Eight innings, one more run
Ezequiel Duran tripled in the eighth off Cosgrove. Nicky Lopez lifted a sacrifice fly to center. Duran scored. That was run number two, Lopez's 22nd RBI on the ESPN line. It was insurance, and it was also a confession: the Rangers still could not get a hit with a runner in scoring position. A triple and a fly ball manufactured the only other run.
Seager's job in that environment is the middle-of-the-order job. He is the one who can put a run on the board with nobody on. Thursday he did it once, in the third, and the pitching staff made it stand up. deGrom worked six innings, one hit, 10 strikeouts.
