There are moments in a must-win game that winning teams take advantage of, and losing teams don’t.

Bottom of the second, 0-0 score. Jake Burger leads off, reaches on an error. Brandon Nimmo singles. Two on, no outs. This is a decisive moment. A winning team takes advantage of it, a losing team is incapable of it. Flyout. Strikeout. Flyout. Nothing.

Top of the fourth, 1-1. Mets have a runner on second and two outs. Franciso Alverez hits a long, lazy fly ball to right center. Both Brandon Nimmo and Evan Carter convene on it. Nimmo drops it, Mets score, 2-1. That’s the Rangers first gift run. 

Then the Rangers are handed a decisive moment of their own in the bottom of the fourth. A golden opportunity. Nimmo singles, Ezequiel Duran walks, Justin Foscue is hit by a pitch. Bases are loaded, no outs. This is the moment when a winning team breaks it open. The Rangers muster two sac flies. It was, literally, the least they could do. They take a 3-2 lead. A winning team would have buried the dagger right then.

Top of the sixth. Another decisive moment. The Rangers desperately need to shut down the Mets. Instead, they bring in Nathan Eovali, who is not having a great season. He was struggling as a starter before he went in the I.L., with a 4.21 ERA in 22 starts. He was rushed back and asked to pitch out of the bullpen, where he has struggling even worse, with a 5.19 ERA. He immediately gives up a double and a walk. Gets an out. Then gives up a two-run double to put the Mets ahead 4-3. A single puts runners on first and third. Then the next decisive moment happens, and the Rangers fail again. Luis Torrens pops up a foul ball that Jake Burger has to go a long way to catch for an out. He does. Then, instead of getting the ball back in, he casually turns around to see the runner at third, Francisco Alverez, a catcher with all the speed of a slug stuck in molasses, bolt for home. It takes moments for the synapses in Burgers brain to trigger, “Hey, that guy is tagging up and trying to score.” Too late. He tagged up and scored the second gift run the Rangers gave the Mets. 

Down 5-3 now, the Rangers folded. They went out one-two-three in the bottom of the sixth, one-two-three in the bottom of the seventh, one-two-three in the bottom of the eighth, got a runner on who was hit by a pitch in the bottom of the ninth, and left him there.

In a game they absolutely had to win, Texas got just three hits, made as many costly defensive mistakes, gave away two runs, and whimpered off to a 6-3 loss while Houston won 7-0.

When faced with winning moments, they lost each one.  

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