Rangers, behind hot bullpen, seek sweep of Rays

The Texas Rangers will continue to lean on their bullpen as they aim for their fifth straight win Sunday afternoon against the Tampa Bay Rays in Arlington, Texas.

The Rangers are one game away from a series sweep after holding off the Rays 6-4 on Saturday. Jacob deGrom allowed four earned runs to tie the game and exited in the sixth inning, but Wyatt Langford blasted the go-ahead two-run home run in the seventh.

"These guys, we got a good group in there," deGrom said postgame. "Like we've said before, everybody's trying to do their part. I was trying to put us in a position to win. The game got tied, but then the offense goes out and does what they do. It's impressive. Everybody's trying to pick each other up and move forward, and the bullpen did a great job of closing that out."

The bullpen choices Saturday consisted of Jacob Webb, Robert Garcia, Chris Martin and Luke Jackson. While Webb was tagged with a blown save when a double scored a runner he inherited from deGrom, the quartet of relievers did not give up an earned run.

Texas relievers have yielded just two runs during the four-game win streak. The Rangers' bullpen has a 3.12 ERA, 10th in the majors, and they're responsible for three victories. Only the Los Angeles Dodgers have more.

"They've done a really good job of picking each other up," manager Bruce Bochy said after Texas won the series opener Friday. "I said it would be a little fluid down there with how I used them. ... They're all going in, throwing strikes and doing their thing."

For the Rays, Brandon Lowe hit his third homer of the year and Jonathan Aranda added his first in Saturday's defeat, the team's third in a row.

Lowe climbed the Rays' all-time list with his long ball, passing Aubrey Huff for third in franchise history with 129 career homers.

"It's cool. We passed some really big-name guys and some people that have played for a really long time," Lowe said. "It's a really awesome thing to be on that list in general, but there's still quite a bit of work to do."

He trails Evan Longoria (261) and Carlos Pena (163).

Tampa Bay will try to recover by sending Drew Rasmussen (1-0, 0.00 ERA) to the mound against the Rangers' Kumar Rocker (0-1, 18.00) in a battle of right-handers.

Rasmussen opened his season with five innings of shutout ball in a win over the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 31. He scattered two hits, struck out four and walked no one.

It was Rasmussen's first start, not counting "opener" assignments, since May 11, 2023, before he underwent his third major elbow surgery.

"He as much as anybody is committed to the strike zone," Rays manager Kevin Cash said March 31. "I think he knows that he can get outs with the best of them in the zone."

In his one career start against Texas, Rasmussen was dinged for five runs on five hits in three innings in a loss.

Rocker will face Tampa Bay for the first time in his career. He gave up six runs on seven hits in three innings of a 14-3 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on March 31.

--Field Level Media