Corey Seager's Struggles Continue, But Texas Rangers Rally Late To Take Series From Kansas City Royals

Jonah Heim hit a game-tying homer in the ninth, and Nathaniel Lowe's game-winning single in the 10th backed up another strong Jon Gray start.

May 5, 2024; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Jon Gray (22) delivers a pitch / Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

The Texas Rangers seemingly snapped an offensive funk in Saturday's season-high outburst against the Kansas City Royals.

Not exactly.

They were back to scratching and crawling for hits in Sunday's rain-delayed finale at Kauffman Stadium.

Nathaniel Lowe, who had four of the clubs' season-high 17 hits on Saturday, singled in Leody Taveras with the winning run in the 10th inning as the Rangers rallied for a 3-2 win to take two of three from the Royals. The Rangers have won three consecutive series.

The Rangers scored a run in the eighth, and Jonah Heim tied it with a solo homer off the right-field foul pole in the ninth to force extra innings. It's the club's first home run in five games.

Lowe's game-winner was set up by Corey Seager's infield single to second, which moved Taveras to third. Taveras started the inning on second, per MLB's new extra-inning rules. Lowe was in an 0-2 hole before connecting on a 1-2 curveball with a run-scoring single to right field.

"There's no quit in this lineup," Heim said via Bally Sports Southwest. "You may have us for the first eight or nine innings, but we're going to come out and give you our best at-bats. [Batters] 1 through 9 can leave the yard at any time."

Jon Gray had another strong start, holding the Royals to two runs on seven hits, with seven strikeouts in seven innings. Kirby Yates pitches two scoreless innings of relief to earn the win and David Robertson earned his first save with a scoreless 10th.

"Great game. These guys fought and had some big hits there at the end," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "You have to look at the mound and what Jon did."

The Rangers offense has had to do much of its damage, however, without Seager's usual plate prowess. The slugger has been in a slump at the plate for a couple of weeks.

Just in (Heim) time! #StraightUpTX pic.twitter.com/FlDtuZQBc4

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) May 5, 2024

In Seagers past 14 games, his batting average has dropped from .301 to .228, and his OPS has dropped to .594. He has one extra-base hit (a home run) and four RBI in the span. One of the RBIs came in the eighth inning Sunday when Seager's sacrifice fly scored Leody Taveras to pull the Rangers to within 2-1.

Before that, however, Seager struck out in his first three plate appearances

In the first, he struck out swinging on a slider out of the zone. In the third, he swung and missed on a 0-2 knuckle curve out of the zone. He struck out swinging on three pitches on a sinker in the sixth. He has 13 strikeouts and four walks in his past 14 games. He reached on an infield single to second in the 10th inning on Sunday and

Seager, who had sports hernia surgery on Jan. 30 and missed most of spring training, said his recovery process has nothing to do with his issues at the plate. In his first 14 games this season, he was batting over .300 with nine walks and 11 strikeouts, although his power numbers were down with just one homer and two doubles. Seager has also had his share of hard-hit balls with exit velocities well over 100 mph that were caught.

"You'd like to feel better and see rewards, but obviously, you're going to still work through trying to be in the right spot whether you have the rewards or not," said Seager, who is a notoriously dedicated tinkerer of his swing whether he's in a slump or not.

How Lowe can you go? #StraightUpTX pic.twitter.com/6cUjE4z8zD

— Texas Rangers (@Rangers) May 5, 2024

You can follow Stefan Stevenson on X @StefanVersusTex.

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