The Texas Rangers keep winning -- but not enough to climb into an American League playoff spot.
The New York Mets keep losing -- but not enough to fall out of a National League playoff spot.
The visiting Rangers will look to complete a sweep of the reeling Mets on Sunday afternoon in the finale of a three-game interleague series with wild-card implications.
Left-hander Jacob Latz (2-0, 2.91 ERA) is slated to start for the Rangers against Mets right-hander Nolan McLean (4-1, 1.42).
The Rangers extended their winning streak and lengthened the Mets' skid on Saturday when Wyatt Langford's two-out, tiebreaking RBI single in the ninth inning completed Texas' comeback in a 3-2 victory.
The win was the sixth straight for the Rangers (79-70), who failed to gain ground in the playoff race for the second straight day. The Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners remain tied atop the AL West -- and in a three-way deadlock with the Boston Red Sox for the final two wild-card spots -- with wins over the Atlanta Braves and Los Angeles Angels, respectively.
The Astros, Mariners and Red Sox are 81-68.
The comeback win was the third of the streak for the Rangers, who were blanked through seven innings by rookie Brandon Sproat and left-hander Brooks Raley before they scored twice in the eighth against Tyler Rogers and Edwin Diaz.
"You do it a time or two, you get the confidence that you can come back," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "And that's what's going on, more than anything There's 27 outs. Keep fighting. And they did that."
Despite suffering their eighth straight loss, the Mets (76-73) maintained their half-game lead over the San Francisco Giants in the race for the third NL wild-card berth after the Giants fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers. New York also is 1 1/2 games ahead of the Cincinnati Reds, who lost to the Athletics.
The defeat continued a familiar pattern for the Mets, who had the best record in baseball at 45-24 through June 12 but are just 31-49 since.
"At times, it can feel like a snowball effect, where it's just one after the other," said Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who failed to make a leaping catch of Cody Freeman's leadoff single in the ninth. "We stop it and then all of a sudden, something else happens."
Latz earned the win in his most recent start last Monday, when he tossed 5 2/3 scoreless innings as the Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers 5-0. McLean suffered his first big-league defeat Monday after allowing one run over 5 1/3 innings in the Mets' 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.
Latz threw one-third of a scoreless inning of relief in his lone appearance against the Mets on June 18, 2024, when the Rangers fell 7-6.
McLean has never opposed Texas. He will become the third consecutive rookie to start for the Mets when he takes the mound on Sunday.
--Field Level Media
