Josh Jung’s fourth trip to the plate ended the same way as the first three: with him reaching base. In the eighth inning at Globe Life Field, the Texas Rangers third baseman singled to right, then gave way to pinch-runner Nicky Lopez. The hit completed a 3-for-3 day with a walk, a double, a home run and two RBIs.
That was the appropriate punctuation for Jung’s afternoon, even if the Rangers’ offense around him remained decidedly uneven. Texas beat the New York Mets 3-1 Thursday after collecting seven hits but converting only two scoring innings. Jung supplied the decisive swing, the extra-base threat and the late pressure that kept the lineup from going quiet altogether.
The swing that changed the game
The game had already tilted toward New York when Jung made his first appearance. Francisco Lindor doubled and later scored on Carson Benge’s single in the top of the first, giving the Mets a 1-0 lead. Texas answered in the bottom half after Justin Foscue singled and Corey Seager struck out for the first out.
Jung followed with a two-run homer to left field. Foscue scored, Jung scored, and the Rangers moved ahead 2-1. That remained the game’s decisive home run because Texas never surrendered the lead, though the rest of the afternoon offered little evidence of an offense ready to coast.
The Mets stayed within reach in part because Zac Thornton worked five innings and allowed only two earned runs. He gave up four hits, walked one and struck out four. Texas scored two runs in the first and one in the sixth, then went scoreless in its other six offensive innings.
Its four runners left on base were a modest total, but the distribution of those chances made the game feel tighter than the final margin suggested.
Jung’s second hit showed how the Rangers could create an opportunity without completing it. He led off the bottom of the fourth with a double to left. Jake Burger then flew out, and Brandon Nimmo walked. Wyatt Langford struck out before Ezequiel Duran grounded out, ending the inning without Jung advancing beyond second.
The sixth contained a similar mixture of production and incompleteness. Seager’s solo homer to right made it 3-1, leading off the scoring in that inning after Jung’s first-inning blast had already put Texas ahead. Jung then walked, but Burger’s force out erased him.
Nimmo struck out, Langford singled, and Burger was subsequently picked off and caught stealing at third. Texas added insurance, but the inning did not become the cushion it briefly threatened to be.
