Late Rally Comes Up Short As Mets Fall To Texas Rangers
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Joey Gallo hit a towering two-run homer that put the Texas Rangers ahead to stay, and they ended a four-game losing streak with a 10-8 victory over the New York Mets on Tuesday night.
Nomar Mazara had four hits and also homered for the Rangers.
After Gallo hit a high-arcing shot in the third, he stopped running between first and second base with teammate Adrian Beltre just ahead of him. It initially appeared that Jay Bruce might have caught the ball, but it was actually just beyond the reach of the right fielder's outstretched glove. Gallo's 17th homer put Texas up 5-4.
Asdrubal Cabrera and Neil Walker went deep in the third for the Mets. In between those shots, Bruce was robbed of a homer when Jared Hoying made a leaping catch just above the 8-foot wall in straightaway center.
Juan Lagares also had a homer among his four hits for New York, which left 13 runners on base while losing for the fifth time in six games.
Curtis Granderson and Travis d'Arnaud homered on consecutive pitches in the ninth off Matt Bush, the Rangers' closer making his first appearance since last Wednesday and pitching in a non-save situation.
Austin Bibens-Dirkx (1-0) got his first major league victory. The 32-year-old right-hander worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings in relief of Dillon Gee, the former Mets pitcher who allowed four runs and three homers over 3 1/3 innings in his first start for Texas.
Mets starter Jacob deGrom (4-3) pitched only four innings for his second straight start. The right-hander gave up eight runs and 10 hits to the Rangers, after Milwaukee had seven runs and eight hits off him six days earlier.
ANOTHER HIT AND HURT
Beltre had an RBI fielder's choice grounder in the first, and two innings later singled for his 2,952nd career hit. After drawing a walk in the sixth, Beltre was removed for a pinch-runner. The team said that was precautionary after he jammed his left ankle in the first. Beltre, who missed the first 51 games this season with calf issues, has hit in all seven games since coming off the DL. That matches the longest season-opening hitting streak in his 20 seasons.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Mets: RHP Seth Lugo (right elbow) and LHP Steven Matz (left elbow) are both with the team in Texas. The expectation is for both to come off the DL to make season debuts with starts in Atlanta this weekend.
Rangers: 1B Mike Napoli was put on the 10-day DL because of a lower back strain. The move was retroactive to Sunday, the day after Napoli came out of his last game. ... RHP Tyson Ross (thoracic outlet syndrome) will make another rehab start this weekend for Triple-A Round Rock.
UP NEXT
Mets: RHP Zach Wheeler (4-6) has a 2.64 ERA over his last six starts. His only loss and longest outing in that span came last Thursday when he threw 6 1/3 innings in a 2-1 loss to Milwaukee.
Rangers: RHP Yu Darvish (5-4) has needed 213 pitches to get through 11 innings in losing his last two starts. He had 16 strikeouts, and the only runs he gave up in both came on three-run homers in the fifth inning.
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