Monday newsletter time: Three young Do It For Durrett winners bring the noise in Rangers’ win

(Courtesy of Bret Richards)

ARLINGTON — If a bird with a catchy name gets credit for the Rangers’ winning rally Saturday, when he wasn’t even on the field as they scored four runs, then three girls visiting from out of town get just as much credit for the W on Sunday.

Armed with ring-side seats, piercing voices and remarkable lung capacity, the girls’ steady stream of harassment toward Mariners hitters was more audible than Jeff the Bird was visible.

Maybe it’s just me, but I hope Jeff has his will in order. He doesn’t seem to have many flights left in him.

However, the girls — Ace Carter, Kimber Richards and Ella Bradford — appear to have years of yelling ahead of them.

Rangers hitters Meibrys Viloria and Brad Miller made eye-contact with one of the adults in the field-level suite and gave a nod of approval.  Right-hander Josh Sborz, who turned in two of his best innings of the season in the 5-3 victory, confirmed that he, too, heard the young ladies giving Seattle hitters the business in the late innings.

“I felt like they were right behind the lefty hitters,” Sborz said. “I don’t remember what they were saying, but I heard them.”

More credit, of course, goes to several Rangers, including: Martin Perez, who allowed three runs (one earned) in six innings; Sborz, who struck out five to pick up the win; and Adolis Garcia and Nate Lowe, who drove in a run apiece in the seventh inning.

The victory gave the Rangers two in a row and a series win over the Mariners, who entered Saturday with a nine-game winning streak in the season series.

“That team’s beat us in a number of different ways,” manager Chris Woodward said. “We’ve had leads and they’ve come back and beat us. To do the opposite … . A couple big hits there. We were, obviously, light in the bullpen. You see what Sborzie did, to step up there, was huge.”

The Rangers never trailed in the game, but Seattle forged a 3-3 tie in the sixth with an unearned run on a two-out throwing error on Corey Seager. Garcia and Lowe struck with one out in the seventh after Seager had doubled to left-center field.

Bubba Thompson collected a two-run single in the fourth, and Seager scored on a two-out wild pitch by Logan Gilbert in the fifth.

Back to the girls. They were on hand thanks to their parents winning an auction for the suite at last year’s Do It For Durrett event. The next DIFD event is Oct. 14, and we’re hopeful the suite will again be donated for a game next season.

Get your vocal chords and wallets ready.

Tickets for Do It For Durrett The Ocho presented by Gateway Buick GMC go on sale at 10 a.m. today. Only 100 tickets are available, so don’t wait around to get yours. Buy them here.

Perez navigates

Perez completed six innings Sunday, and it wasn’t easy.

The All-Star struck out seven and walked five, and never seemed to have an easy inning after a seven-pitch first.

But he wasn’t wild. He was stubborn, just as stubborn as Mariners hitters.

Seattle has a potent lineup filled with hitters who don’t chase much out of the strike zone. Perez wasn’t going to give them good pitches to hit, so on a few occasions he pitched around hitters who could give him trouble.

“We won,” Perez said. “They’ve got a good team. They’ve got really good hitters, and I just tried to give them nothing free. I was trying to throw the pitches I wanted where I wanted.”

Perez dropped his ERA from 2.85 to 2.79. Jose Leclerc followed Sborz in the ninth and nailed down his first save since the season opener in 2020.

The date of that season opener? July 24, which is nuts but true because of the delayed start caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

ICYMI …

For those who were otherwise occupied, the Rangers pulled off a really nice Hall of Fame weekend. The highlight was the luncheon Friday, when Emily Jones was given the chance to make her boss, John Blake, miserable. She went easy on him, but they produced a hilarious Q&A, especially to those who have covered the team with Blake as the media relations chief. Michael Young was particularly good in a Q&A of Ian Kinsler’s former Rangers teammates. Kinsler later revealed that Young once torched Kinsler’s Kevin Garnett jersey during yet another Celtics-Lakers NBA Finals.

Rangers Today was there. As always, the weekend is our busy time. Here’s our latest, in case you missed it.

The Sunday Read: Ian Kinsler’s big World Series steal

Rangers farm report: Mason Englert turning it back on

T.R.’s Memoirs: Rangers Hall of Famers, and their matches

Friday on the Farm: Kyle Cody nearing his return

Doggy video!

Still sleeping off the weekend on this Monday. Enjoy. See you Tuesday.

No, I'm not tired at all… pic.twitter.com/vavVIlpXun

— Heckin Good Dogs (@HeckinGoodDogs) August 12, 2022

Jeff Wilson, jeff@rangerstoday.com