Ezequiel Durán kept putting the ball in play until Texas finally flipped a game that had opened as a Tampa Bay showcase.
The Associated Press credited Durán with his 12th game this season of at least three hits after a 3-for-5 night with a run and an RBI in an 8-6 Rangers win at Globe Life Field. That contact thread - not only the power display Jake Burger provided - was the difference between another early hole and a series split against the American League's top record.
The AP led with Burger's two homers and Durán's three-hit total in the same sentence, a pairing that captured how Texas needed both the long ball and the singles to erase deficits that size.
ESPN's box matches the AP's hit total and lists Durán at .277/.337/.457 with 78 RBI after Sunday. He struck out twice, but the three singles arrived in the middle of Texas' climb from two separate four-run deficits.
The fifth-inning push
Tampa Bay led 4-0 after the second and 5-1 early in the fourth before Burger's second homer and Justin Foscue's two-run double tied it 5-5. Durán had reached in that fourth and scored on Foscue's double, one of the quieter steps in Texas' first full climb of the afternoon.
With the score still knotted in the fifth, Elias Díaz singled off Steven Matz to score Burger. Durán followed with a single off Casey Legumina that plated Logan O'Hoppe and put Texas ahead 7-5 - the first lead of the day that stuck through the late innings. Matz (5-5) was charged with the loss after allowing three hits and two earned runs in his inning.
Trevor Williams earned the win (1-0) with two hitless frames after signing with Texas last week. Jacob Latz worked a scoreless eighth, and Jakob Junis closed a perfect ninth for his sixth save in seven chances.
