Ezequiel Durán put the first run on the board Friday night, driving a ball 419 feet to center field in the second inning and handing the Texas Rangers a 1-0 lead they could not keep.
The solo shot was Durán's 17th home run of the season. ESPN's box has him 1-for-4 with a run and an RBI, batting .276/.337/.459 after the swing.
By the time the ninth inning ended, Tampa Bay had walked out of Globe Life Field with a 7-6 win, ending a 10-game road losing streak against Texas and leaving the Rangers three games back in the AL West.
Early lead, quick reply
Durán's homer was clean and deep, the kind of contact that usually settles a lineup. Tampa Bay did not linger behind. Jonathan Aranda tied it with a homer in the third, and Richard Palacios put the Rays ahead with another in the fourth. Kumar Rocker, working after two openers, then watched a four-run fifth decide the middle of the game.
Yandy Díaz, Aranda, and Junior Caminero doubled in succession in that fifth. Victor Mesa Jr. added an RBI, and Cedric Mullins' double-play groundout scored Mesa. The inning sequence read like a checklist of the damage Rocker (5-11) could not stop: Aranda's third-inning homer, Palacios in the fourth, then four more runs before the fifth closed.
Nick Martinez (14-4) gave Tampa Bay length. He worked 6.1 innings, allowed five hits and three runs, and made his first appearance as a visiting pitcher in Arlington after starting his big-league career with Texas and spending time in Japan, the Associated Press reported. Texas finished with seven hits and one error; the Rays stacked 12 hits without a miscue.
Offense that arrived late
The Rangers' best answer came in the seventh. After Garrett Cleavinger walked Cody Freeman, Elias Díaz lined a grand slam just over the left-field fence - Texas' first of 2026 and Díaz's fourth career slam, per the AP - cutting the deficit to 6-5. Díaz later lifted a sacrifice fly in the ninth that made it 7-6, finishing with five RBI on the night.
