Nimmo's doubles help power Rangers' six-run fifth past Arizona

PHOENIX - Brandon Nimmo kept finding the gaps while Chase Field tried to end the inning early.

Nimmo doubled twice Saturday, including an RBI double in the fifth that scored Corey Seager and pushed Texas ahead 4-1 during a six-run outburst in a 6-2 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, the Associated Press and ESPN's box score show. He finished 2-for-5 with an RBI.

The second double came after a replay review had already kept Seager safe at first and after Josh Jung had singled home Elias Diaz.

The inning started with Wyatt Langford's solo homer - his 17th, per the AP - and refused to die. Jake Burger singled and stole. Nicky Lopez sacrificed. Diaz drove in Burger. Joc Pederson was hit. Seager reached on the contested play when Brandon Pfaadt was ruled off the bag and Arizona's challenge proved inconclusive. Jung singled. Nimmo doubled. Ezequiel Duran's two-run single finished it.

Gap power in the middle of the storm

Nimmo's night was not a home-run showcase. It was doubles baseball: one early, one with runners on in the fifth, both of them stretching Arizona's defense and Pfaadt's pitch count. ESPN's batting line credits him with two doubles and the RBI that made the score 4-1 before Duran's single made it 6-1.

Texas piled up 13 hits. Kumar Rocker started and allowed one run over four innings with five strikeouts. Robert Garcia (1-1) threw a scoreless fifth for the win. Nathan Eovaldi, returning from the injured list, worked 2 2/3 innings of one-run relief. Pfaadt (7-3) lasted 6 2/3 and allowed six runs on 10 hits with seven strikeouts.

Arizona scratched across a second run on Corbin Carroll's sacrifice fly in the sixth after Gabriel Moreno singled. Tim Tawa's triple and Pavin Smith's RBI single had produced the Diamondbacks' first run in the third.

Even series, thin margin

Texas improved to 73-76 and sat two games behind the final American League wild-card spot despite a sub-.500 record, according to the AP. Arizona fell to 79-70 and 1 1/2 games behind San Diego for the last National League wild card.

The rubber match Sunday features Cal Quantrill (8-5, 2.89 ERA) for the Rangers and Eduardo Rodriguez (15-5, 2.55) for the Diamondbacks. Nimmo's doubles will share the page with Langford's homer and Duran's two-run single, but it was his gap double that turned a three-run inning into a four-run lead before the last hit landed.

Pfaadt threw 99 pitches and still could not finish the seventh cleanly after the fifth had already wrecked his line. Nimmo's second double in the ninth - with two outs - was a quieter echo of the fifth-inning gap shot, a reminder that the outfielder's night was built on extra-base contact rather than a single swing.

Texas stranded that ninth-inning double, but the damage had already been done hours earlier.

Sources

CBS Sports

tsn.ca

CBS Sports

ESPN