The Texas Rangers trailed for fewer than 10 minutes of game action Thursday. Josh Jung made sure of that with one swing in the first inning.
Francisco Lindor had doubled to open the night and scored on Carson Benge's two-out single for a 1-0 Mets lead. Justin Foscue answered with a single to left. Corey Seager struck out. Then Jung drove Zac Thornton's pitch to left for a two-run home run - his 12th of the season - and Globe Life Field flipped from 1-0 New York to 2-1 Texas.
The Associated Press reported that Jung's first-inning shot put Texas ahead to stay in a 3-1 win that closed the Rangers' home schedule and stopped a three-game losing streak. Per the CBS Sports play-by-play, Foscue scored ahead of Jung on the homer; those were the only runs Thornton allowed across five innings.
One swing, lasting lead
The sequence itself was textbook early-game baseball. Lindor's double to shallow right put pressure on Rocker before the count was warm. Soto fouled out.
Bichette grounded to third. Benge's single through the right side scored Lindor. Then Texas' half: Foscue's single to left, Seager chasing a strikeout, Jung turning on Thornton for the two-run answer to left.
From 1-0 down to 2-1 up in the span of a half-inning.
Jung would add a double in the fourth and a walk and single later, finishing 3-for-3. But the Richardson angle on this night is that first swing - the one that erased New York's lead and set every inning after it on Texas' terms.
Thornton (5-6) worked 5.0 innings with four hits, two earned runs, one walk and four strikeouts. The AP noted the only runs he surrendered came on Jung's homer. Everything after that first-inning exchange - Seager's sixth-inning solo shot for a 3-1 final, Kumar Rocker's five innings, a scoreless bullpen - protected the lead Jung created before the game was 20 minutes old.
Jung finished the full night 3-for-3 with a walk and a double, per the CBS box, and the AP said he is hitting .341 (15-for-44) in 11 games since returning from a left calf strain that cost him 47 games.