NEW YORK — A fourth-inning sequence on Sunday afternoon felt like a microcosm of the Rangers’ weekend series in Queens.
Facing slugger Pete Alonso to lead off the inning, Texas starter Jon Gray struck him out swinging on a slider way outside of the zone. But as Alonso swung, the ball dribbled to the Citi Field backstop, and an errant throw to first from catcher Jonah Heim allowed Alonso to take second.
Gray then surrendered an RBI double to Jeff McNeil and a two-run homer to Eduardo Escobar, his third home run in three games against the Rangers this weekend, as Texas fell to the Mets, 4-1, to close out the series.
Like many of Texas’ losses this season, including the series opener on Friday night, it felt like a game the Rangers could have won, if not for a mistake here or a strikeout there.
After matching a season-high seven innings in his last start on June 28, Gray went 5 2/3 innings in the loss to the Mets, giving up four runs (three earned) on six hits and a walk. The right-hander wasn’t quite as sharp as he’s been in recent weeks, throwing a lot of pitches early in the game.
“It was a little bit wild, just not the best control,” Gray said of his performance. “I’m not trying to be 100 percent perfect every time, but those could have been better. I felt like every third pitch was a big miss. There were a handful of pitches that were really just uncompetitive, like washouts. They weren’t even close really.
“So I think that it can get a lot sharper. If those are competitive pitches, maybe I go an extra inning today, or I’m just a little bit tougher to face.”
Gray’s three-game win streak ended as he could not finish the sixth inning due to his high pitch count. For all the control issues Gray felt he had, he only issued one walk against seven strikeouts.
“I thought he was good outside of those two at-bats, the first-pitch double to Jeff McNeil and then [Eduardo] Escobar a couple pitches later hit a homer,” said manager Chris Woodward. “Outside of that, the stuff looked good, the velo was up. He felt great, the ball was coming out of his hand good. They got him on those few at-bats, but we’ve got to be able to get him some run support.”
Speaking of run support, the Rangers’ offense went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.
While both Gray and Mets starter Carlos Carrasco went 5 2/3 innings and surrendered six hits, Carrasco was able to limit the damage, with the Rangers’ only run…
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