Rangers Roundup: Texas wins opening series over Red Sox
The Rangers went 3-1 over the first weekend of the season. The pitching rules, Adolis García bops, and injuries really stink.
Wasn’t it great to have baseball back this past weekend?
It certainly was for me. I was lucky enough to have a substantial amount of time to enjoy all of it, especially the Texas Rangers, which is what this semi-weekly newsletter will be all about.
The Rangers Roundup will be your one-stop shop for all things Texas Rangers. After every series — usually on Monday and Thursday mornings — the Roundup will land in your inbox and give you everything you need to know about what’s happening in Arlington. I’m excited to start this up, and I’m even more excited to share it with all of you.
How this all works will be flexible. I’m giving myself the freedom to switch up the format if need be, so if you have any feedback, throw it my way. For now, I’m modeling it somewhat after what the great Jamey Newberg does in his game recaps, which are done in a “Three Up, Three Down” format. The Rangers Roundup is not a copy, but it is certainly inspired. After each series is completed, I’ll give you a number of things I’m pleased with, alongside some aspects that might not be as great. The number of those items is subject to change depending on the circumstances. There will also be some other nuggets thrown into the newsletter as well. Again, all of this is flexible. I’ve been known to change my mind on a whim before.
Side note: I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how many people have been enjoying my work here, so thank you all for that. I hope you continue to enjoy the content!
Enough of my jibber-jabber. The Rangers played four baseball games this past weekend. Let’s talk about it.
Baseball is Back!
The first day of the baseball season wells up so many emotions in me. From the bunting to the energized crowd, I’m never not pumped up for the beginning of the 162-game marathon.
This year was no different, and as I settled onto my couch to watch the Rangers take on the Boston Red Sox in game one of a four-game opening series, all I felt was excitement. Admittedly, not as much as last year, when the team was coming off a World Series victory and all the celebration that followed. Without that, there wasn’t as much jubilation from the sold-out crowd at Globe Life Field. Guess it just makes me want to feel that feeling again.
I’m sure the Rangers feel the same way.
The quest to win a World Series is hard. This is not an original thought nor an entirely enlightening one, but it is true, and it’s important to understand just how difficult climbing to the top of the mountain truly is. The Los Angeles Dodgers, armed with all the money in the world and the players to show for it, have won just seven titles since moving to California from Brooklyn in 1958. While that isn’t a number to scoff at, it just goes to show that even with all the resources in the world, it’s still not guaranteed that a team will eventually lay claim to a championship.
That certainly was the case for the Rangers in 2023 when they finally won their first World Series in franchise history. The journey to their second is now underway.
It truly is such a blessing that baseball will be in our lives for the next eight months. Whatever that brings us is unknown. All I know is that I’m ready for whatever this wonderful sport has to throw my way.
Pitching Rules the Weekend (Except Tyler Mahle)
Coming into the season, pitching was the biggest question mark surrounding the Rangers. This became especially true once the team suffered a slew of injuries to members of their starting rotation when Cody Bradford (left elbow sprain) and Jon Gray (right wrist fracture) both went down over the span of 48 hours during spring training.
Those injuries immediately made the pitching staff extremely thin, prompting the Rangers front office to sign veteran lefty Patrick Corbin to a one-year contract.
But Corbin wasn’t needed in Texas’ first series of the season, as three of the starters — Nathan Eovaldi, Jack Leiter, and Jacob deGrom — were fantastic, while the bullpen also proved that they might have what it takes to be a formidable force in 2025.
Eovaldi was awarded the Opening Day start for the second consecutive season, and he looked every bit the ace that the Rangers need him to be. Over six innings, he scattered three hits and allowed only two runs while striking out nine. He was in command of every pitch, especially his curveball, which he threw 25% of the time. Of the 17 swings-and-misses Eovaldi had over the course of his outing, 10 came via the curveball.
The only two runs Eovaldi surrendered were because of Red Sox RF Wilyer Abreu, who became a massive thorn in the Rangers’ side throughout the entirety of the weekend. Abreu notched Boston’s first hit of the season in the top of the third on a splitter that I’m sure Eovaldi was trying to throw a bit lower but instead caught a bit too much of the plate. Abreu later came around to score on a fielder’s choice groundout. Later, in the top of the fifth, Abreu pounced on a four-seam fastball that wasn’t as inside as Eovaldi wanted, prompting Abreu to hit it 415 feet and over the right field fence. Besides those two missteps to Abreu, Eovaldi was pretty much flawless and delivered everything the team could’ve asked for from its Opening Day starter.
Because of all the injuries, Jack Leiter was thrown into the starting rotation to open the season and made his first start of the year in game two. To say that Leiter went through some growing pains in his first season in the big leagues would be an understatement. During his off-and-on stints in Arlington, Leiter had an 8.83 ERA over 35 2/3 IP. Compare that with his time at Triple-A Round Rock in 2024, where he had an impressive 3.51 ERA over 77 innings of work. Clearly, there was something there with Leiter, but he had yet to unlock it on the big stage.
That was until Friday night, when Leiter consistently weaved out of trouble en route to pitching five innings of one-run ball. His fastball touched 99 MPH, and his new and improved sinker, alongside a modified change-up, proved mighty effective against a powerful Red Sox lineup. It was easily Leiter’s best start of his career, something I’m sure he’s relieved about given his struggles a year ago.
I’ll skip Tyler Mahle’s start on Saturday. It was bad and will be discussed later.
What wasn’t bad on Saturday was the bullpen. After coughing up the game on Opening Day when Luke Jackson came in and gave up a three-run homer to Abreu (who else, right?), the bullpen got its collective act together and was fantastic, especially after Mahle was only able to go 1 2/3 innings in his first start of the season. The quintet of Jacob Webb, Hoby Milner, Gerson Garabito, Robert Garcia, and Chris Martin allowed just two runs while striking out eight and walking just two over 7 1/3 masterful innings. In the three Texas wins over the weekend, the ‘pen only allowed three runs over 15 1/3 innings. Given that the bullpen has objectively been the weakest aspect of the team for the past several seasons, seeing it go out and perform the way it did brought a smile to my face.
Compared to Mahle on Saturday, Jacob deGrom was not bad on Baby Blue Sunday. He was, as he always is when his arm isn’t in pieces, great.
I always struggle watching deGrom pitch. On one hand, watching him throw is like watching Picasso paint. It’s beautiful. It’s majestic. It’s breathtaking. He’s one of the best pitchers of this era, and to have him on my team is astounding.
On the other hand is the fact that he is as fragile as they come. In his two seasons with the Rangers, he’s made just nine starts. He’s been every bit as advertised during those starts — Texas is 7-2 in those games, including 6-0 during the 2023 World Series season — but his lack of availability has no doubt been a disappointment to both deGrom and the Rangers. So, getting to see him masterfully carve his way through the Red Sox lineup on Sunday afternoon was everything I could’ve asked for.
Through five innings, deGrom dominated, allowing just two hits, two walks, while striking out six and giving up zero runs. All of that on just 73 pitches, 49 of which were strikes. If this were later in the season, and subsequently later in deGrom’s recovery from the Tommy John surgery he had in June 2023, he likely could’ve gone at least another inning. But the Rangers are monitoring his innings early on so that they can get the best version of deGrom in August, September, and perhaps even October.
Overall, what a job by the arms. I’ll leave you with this stat: the Rangers’ starters had a 2.04 ERA over 17 2/3 innings against Boston. Heck yeah.
El Bombi Rakes
Adolis García was not good last year.
After his 2023 campaign, where he slashed .245/.328/.508 (.836 OPS) and hit 39 home runs and drove in 107 runs, García regressed to a paltry .224/.284/.400 (.684 OPS) season in 2024. He never looked right all year, with perhaps a multitude of injuries alongside the wear and tear of the long 2023 season weighing on him.
He was not quiet about his struggles and his intent to improve. During spring training, García said that he wanted to hit 50 home runs this year. Given where he ended last season, that number seemed a bit high.
He doesn’t seem to care what any of us think.
Over the first four games of 2025, García clubbed two home runs and drove in four runs. Even when he was getting out, he was smashing the baseball. Just take a look at some of these exit velocities. It’s mind-boggling.
And perhaps most importantly for García, zero strikeouts. It’s not new news that when he’s controlled in his swing, he’s at his best. Unfortunately, he’s been prone to doing the exact opposite, which leads to an approach that often results in a lot of strikeouts. That’s not what we’ve seen from him so far, however, which is amazing news for Texas.
For the sake of everybody’s enjoyment, let’s just watch these two mammoth home runs that he hit this past series.
The first, a sweeper from Walker Buehler that García timed up beautifully:
The second, another sweeper, this one from Richard Fitts, that García obliterates into the second deck:
Mama, there goes that man. If he keeps this up for a full 162, watch out, baseball.
Jonah Heim, You Have My Attention
Another Ranger that had a disappointing 2024 (boy, were there a lot of them) was Jonah Heim. His breakout 2023 was a pleasant surprise, so heading into the title defense season of 2024, there was a lot expected of the switch-hitting catcher.
Just like García, though, the extra games played throughout the postseason en route to the World Series the season prior seemed to catch up to him, as Heim never looked comfortable at the plate. He put up a measly .602 OPS, the lowest of his career over the course of a full season.
Those struggles prompted the Rangers to seek out some extra catching help, as they brought in Kyle Higashioka to split the duties with Heim.
When Heim didn’t get the Opening Day start, my eyebrows perked up. Higashioka got it instead, and that raised a lot of questions in my mind about how the Rangers viewed the two. I probably shouldn’t have, though, because whether or not the team had any doubts didn’t matter. Heim made his statement the following day regardless.
In his first game of the year on Friday, Heim clubbed two crucial home runs. Even when he didn’t get a hit on Saturday, he was still hitting the ball hard and was just a bit unlucky. There’s no scientific analysis here, but, just like García, he looked a lot more comfortable than he did at any point a season ago.
It’s an encouraging sign that both those two lynchpins of the Rangers offense seem to be starting 2025 on the right track.
Injuries Suck
Josh Jung just can’t seem to catch a break.
He missed a significant chunk of last season with a fractured wrist after getting hit by Phil Maton in the fourth game of the year. In 2023, he also spent some lengthy time on the IL.
Sometime between when Texas got back from Arizona and before the team’s first of two exhibition games against the Kansas City Royals last Monday and Tuesday, Jung developed some soreness in his neck that caused him to be scratched from those two games. He was good to go on Opening Day and started game two before he was pulled after making an impressive play on an Alex Bregman ground ball in the seventh inning. His neck issue flared up again, and the Rangers wanted to be careful.
Manager Bruce Bochy said that Jung was “day-to-day” and that he hoped a couple of days off would do the trick. The team certainly hopes so, given that the depth in the infield dwindled substantially when Josh Smith, Jung’s replacement on Friday, injured his leg when attempting to make a play on a foul ball during Saturday’s contest. Smith stayed in the game for a bit but was lifted before he could come to the plate, with Ezequiel Duran taking his place.
Smith’s ailment caused the team to put Jung on the 10-day IL, which created a roster spot that the Rangers filled with IF Jonathan Ornelas. Bochy said that Smith should hopefully be good to go at some point during this upcoming road trip in Cincinnati. Nonetheless, the absence of Jung is massive and will impact how the team manages its lineup in the short term.
Mahle, Come On
Tyler Mahle’s 2025 debut was not good. He was inefficient and lacked the necessary control to get big-league hitters out over the course of his 1 2/3 innings of work on Saturday. It was disappointing, and the Rangers were fortunate to get an amazing performance from their bullpen, which earned them the victory.
Mahle’s success is paramount if the Rangers are to contend. He’s a veteran who the team expects to perform at least at an average level. What the Rangers got from Mahle on Saturday was anything but.
Obviously, it’s just one game. Mahle, nor the Rangers, have any need to overreact to what they saw on Saturday. If there’s any silver lining, it’s that the only place for Mahle to go in 2025 is up.
Heading to Cincinnati
The Rangers go on the road for the first time this season with a brief three-game trip up to Cincinnati to face the Reds.
Here are the pitching probables for the series:
Monday - (TEX) Kumar Rocker (0-0, -.-- ERA) vs. (CIN) Brady Singer (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Tuesday - (TEX) Nathan Eovaldi (0-0, 3.00 ERA) vs. (CIN) Carson Spiers (0-0, -.-- ERA)
Wednesday - (TEX) Jack Leiter (1-0, 1.80 ERA) vs. (CIN) Hunter Greene (0-0, 3.60 ERA)
The Reds went 1-2 over the weekend against the San Francisco Giants, including an Opening Day loss where former Rangers reliever Ian Gibaut surrendered four runs in the ninth to choke away the lead, and subsequently the game.
In my National League preview, I said that Cincinnati “could be in contention for a Wild Card spot by season’s end.” One series of baseball doesn’t change that opinion for me. The Reds have a lot of talent — Greene, Elly De La Cruz, Nick Lodolo — and should give the Rangers a good series.
Good writing, Seth! I enjoyed the read. Looking forward to Rocker tonight, but all eyes will be on the Frog Women’s BBall team tonight. Go, Frogs! Go, Rangers!