Rangers History Today: A Walk-Off Win Against Two Familiar Faces

On this day, the Rangers beat the Milwaukee Brewers — and beat a couple of former Rangers in the process.

On this date in Texas Rangers history, the Rangers needed 12 innings to beat the Milwaukee Brewers, and a couple of former Rangers in the process.

The game, on August 13, 1986, was at Arlington Stadium and the Rangers were in a division title race for the first time in several years. The Rangers needed some walk-off heroics in the bottom of the 12th to claim win No. 60 of the season and send the Brewers under .500.

It started with a double by Don Slaught off a familiar face to Rangers fans from the early 1980s — John Henry Johnson. The Houston native found himself in Texas after spending 1978 and the first part of 1979 with Oakland. Johnson had put together a solid rookie campaign for the A’s in 1978, going 11-10 in 33 starts. But he never approached it.

With the Rangers from 1979-81, he won just seven games in 74 appearances (12 starts) and ended up in Boston two seasons later. He spent the final two years of his career in Milwaukee coming out of the bullpen.

Johnson faced just two hitters that night. After getting Steve Buechele to sacrifice himself to move Slaught to third, the Brewers brought in Bryan Clutterbuck. He nearly escaped from the trouble, even after intentionally walking Oddibe McDowell and allowed McDowell to advance to second.

Scott Fletcher struck out for the second out, but outfielder Ruben Sierra managed to keep the game from going to another inning with a line drive to right field that scored Slaught, giving the Rangers a 5-4 win.

So who was the other former Ranger? He started the game for Milwaukee, but didn’t factor in the decision. Danny Darwin went eight solid innings, giving up four runs on five hits, while striking out five and walking three. 

Darwin, a Bonham, Texas native, started his Major League career with the Rangers in 1978 and carved out a solid 21-year career that nearly stretched into the 21st century. He did time with eight different teams, but he spent eight of those years with Texas, where he went 55-52 with 3.72 ERA. For his career, he went 171-182 and won the National League ERA title with the Houston Astros in 1990 with a mark of 2.21.

Shortly after that game, in fact, Darwin was dealt to Houston to help the Astros with their pennant drive, which ultimately ended in the National League Championship Series, falling to the New York Mets.

But, on this night, both former Rangers found themselves on the losing end.

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