Yovani Gallardo was struggling.



“He’s still a major-league pitcher, in my opinion,” said Jeff Banister after the game, but against Patrick Corbin and the NL West-leading Arizona Diamondbacks, the Rangers were unable to give Gallardo their customary bombastic run support, so by the time Paul Goldschmidt came to the plate with one out in the top of the fourth inning with the bases loaded and Arizona already leading 4-1, he was facing Jeffrey Springs, not Gallardo.



Goldschmidt had already hit a first-inning home run to pop the cork on the scoring for the night, so Springs was being careful with the slugger. The count worked full, and then Goldschmidt hit an 82 mph breaking pitch at 90 mph to Profar’s right. He dove, detained the ball before it could get to the outfield grass, and bounced up to one knee, pushing toward second base as he completed the recovery, and started a 5-4-3 double play in which all three players — Profar with the...