One hundred games have come and gone, and the Texas Rangers are as mediocre as you could possibly be.
Fifty wins. Fifty losses.
Last night’s Sunday Night Baseball bout against the American League-best Detroit Tigers felt like a playoff game. Excellent pitching by Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal stymied a Texas lineup that had no business—Corey Seager being the lone exception—facing such a talented arm. Jacob Latz and the rest of the Rangers’ pitching staff were fine, but when the offense only scores one measly run, there’s really not much to work with.
So, here we are. To be honest, given where the team was just several weeks ago—down in the dumps and hanging on by a thread—being .500 through 100 games is honestly a win. It’s especially impressive considering the Rangers just won a series against the aforementioned Tigers, despite losing the finale last night. That’s what I call progress.
This past weekend was interesting. The Rangers won 2–0 on Friday after Patrick Corbin once again turned in a formidable outing—5 2/3 innings of shutout baseball while allowing only three hits—and Seager delivered the clutch RBIs necessary to pull out the victory. On Saturday, Kumar Rocker delivered another fantastic performance following his demotion to Triple-A and subsequent promotion, going 6 1/3 innings, allowing no runs on one hit with five strikeouts and three walks. Rocker is improving, and the following numbers, courtesy of beat writer Evan Grant, perfectly illustrate that fact:
But then Skubal stepped onto the rubber and did what he does best: dominate. Eleven Texas hitters went down on strikes against the reigning Cy Young winner (15 strikeouts total on the night). The only run came home via a wild pitch thrown to the batter immediately after Skubal was lifted from the game by Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. Some lackluster work by Chris Martin—who ended up leaving the game due to a leg injury—gave Detroit the lead in the eighth inning, and that was that. The Rangers mustered just four hits on the evening and didn’t draw a walk. I didn’t play baseball past high school, but I’m smart enough to know that’s not a winning recipe.
While last night left a bad taste in the mouth, the overall work done by the team over the past week (not including the All-Star break) is encouraging. Back-to-back series wins over the Astros and Tigers were not something I had on the bingo card—but hey, I’ll take it.
Where does this leave the outlook for the rest of the campaign? It’s an interesting question, one that I’m not sure we’ll have a clear answer to until the end of this week. Two massive series are on deck—three games against the Athletics and then three more against the Atlanta Braves. Win four out of those six, and I think we’re looking at a team that’s going to want to try and contend in 2025. Split those games—or worse, lose four, five, or, God forbid, all six—and things start to get dicey.
The fact of the matter is that if the Rangers are three to four games (or fewer) back of the Wild Card by the end of the week, then the front office probably decides to lock it in and compete this season. And given how they’ve played recently, that’s certainly not out of the question.
We have to talk about the lineup the Rangers sent out there against Skubal yesterday. Let me be clear—Skubal might be the best pitcher in the league, and any group of nine hitters the Rangers threw out there likely would’ve struggled. Additionally, Skubal is a lefty, so Bruce Bochy—who’s notoriously savvy when it comes to left-right matchups—went with a lineup that featured a lot of right-handed hitters, perhaps to the detriment of the end product.
Here’s the lineup:
Wyatt Langford - CF
Corey Seager (L) - SS
Marcus Semien - 2B
Adolis García - RF
Kyle Higashioka - DH
Jonah Heim (S) - C
Cody Freeman - 3B
Justin Foscue - 1B
Ezequiel Duran - LF
That bottom of the order is, frankly, unacceptable. Cody Freeman—who’s only up right now because Texas is lacking infield help after Josh Jung was sent down to Triple-A to figure some things out and Jake Burger went down with (another) injury—was awarded his first two at-bats in the big leagues against Tarik Skubal, of all people. It’s safe to say it did not go all that well.
Justin Foscue and Ezequiel Duran, two players who once had promising futures—Duran especially—are certified non-threats at the plate right now. Every time they came up to bat, there was no doubt in my mind that the plate appearance would result in an out. That might be rude, but it’s true. For a team allegedly in contention for a playoff spot, fielding a lineup with that horrendous of a bottom three is, to put it lightly, undesirable.
OK, you might think I’m exaggerating. Just take a look at how Foscue and Duran’s crucial eighth-inning at-bats went against Tigers reliever Tyler Holton:
Nope. Got to do better than that, fellas.
I’m aware that it’s a problem that’s really nobody’s fault except fate’s. Injuries and underwhelming performances from players who were expected to contribute more have allowed the lineup to decay into a state of sadness every once in a while—especially when a lefty toes the rubber. Sigh.
Corey Seager might own Tarik Skubal, and that’s pretty neat.
After last night’s game, Seager is now 8-for-12 in his career against Skubal. He notched two of those hits last night—an opposite-field double in the first and a scorching single in the fourth. Skubal finally retired him in the sixth, and it elicited a candidly triumphant response from the Tigers’ ace.
It’s awesome that the Rangers employ a player who’s such a menace to opposing pitching staffs. Only during the heyday of Josh Hamilton in the early 2010s has a Texas hitter been more feared than Seager has been over the past four years.
And hey, for old time’s sake, let’s relive one of the greatest moments in franchise history: Corey Seager’s game-tying two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth in Game 1 of the 2023 World Series.
I think I’ve probably watched that 1,000 times over the past year and a half. Ah, what a time. What. A. Time.