The Texas Rangers organization understands the phrase “that’s the way baseball go” all too well.

Unfortunately, on Sunday afternoon, that phrase would work against them in a 4-3 loss to the Houston Astros that will no doubt sting.

Carrying a 3-0 lead after six innings, Sunday marks the Rangers largest lead in a loss this season. With Texas up 3-1 after the 7th, today marks just the second time in 2025 that the Rangers have lost when leading after seven frames (Now, 24-2 when leading after 7 this season).

This afternoon’s result also splits the four-game series that opened up the 2025 Silver Boot Series.

“Hard-fought series,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said after the game. “Played well, played well today;

It looked very much like Jack Leiter was going to be the story of the night as he was virtually unhittable for much of his outing.

Leiter took a no-hitter into the 6th inning, allowing just two walks up until that point. With two outs in the inning, Yainer Diaz lifted a home run into the Rangers bullpen, ending Leiter’s bid for history. His effort was the longest no-hit bid by a Texas starter since 5/13/23 when Jon Gray also took a zero-hit effort 6.2 innings in Oakland vs the Athletics.

“I think everything was working,” Bochy said of Leiter. “He had a good mix going, he threw a lot of strikes, and was pitching very efficiently. He did a terrific job, really, really was on top of his game, and you hate to see that get away with the job that he did”.

Leading off the 8th, Leiter allowed a pair of soft singles to put the tying runs on base, forcing Bochy to make a move for Chris Martin.

Martin would throw just one pitch before being removed from the game with what Bochy called “shoulder discomfort”. This marks the second time this week Martin has been removed from a game after throwing just one pitch. After being evaluated, the Rangers should know more about Martin’s status before Tuesday night’s series opener in New York.

Entering with a pair of runners on and no one out, Robert Garcia came on and was able to get two quick outs against the bottom of the Houston order. However, the next batter was Astros leadoff hitter Isacc Paredas poked a game-winning three-run home run just over the left field wall.

“He got two quick outs, great job I thought there,” Bochy said. “Then, the changeup just came back over a little bit, he [Paredes] got enough of it, had him out in front but caught it well enough to hit it out and pull it down the line, those balls carry when you catch it out in front like that and it looked like it was close to getting foul but really showed good poise out there to get the two quick outs but unfortunately, their guy got enough of it.

Overall, the Rangers will look back on this home stand positively, finishing with a 5-2 record despite the tough loss to close it.

Still, Texas knows one got away from them today and will have to flush it as they head on a road trip to New York and Chicago.

“We move on, you keep going out there and playing good baseball,” Bochy said. “That’s how you deal with it, you’re gonna have some tough ones, and today was’.