Canada native Quantrill, Rangers' bullpen gut out short-handed win

TORONTO -- Cal Quantrill has not pitched many times in his native home of Canada.

The Port Hope, Ontario, native had made only two starts at Rogers Centre -- which is approximately 67 miles/108 kilometers southwest of his hometown -- despite being a starter for the majority of his eight-year big league career.

Quantrill has persisted as a quality arm out of the bullpen for the Rangers in 2026. But due to injuries in the rotation, he was called upon to step up and start a bullpen game on Saturday in Toronto, his second spot start of the season.

He delivered, twirling four scoreless innings as he carried the Rangers to a 7-4 bullpen game victory over the Blue Jays to secure the first three games of the four-game set.

“He was awesome,” said Rangers manager Skip Schumaker. “We're hoping for three innings, and he gave us four really quality innings. He did more than enough for us to win a game, and it really set us up for the rest of the game. … It all started today with Cal. If he goes two innings, I don't know where we're going to go, right? It all started with Cal. Cal was just fantastic.”

It’s hard to overstate just how important the bullpen game victory was for the Rangers, who are down a starter in the rotation and continue to power through a 15 games in 15 days stretch.

Entering the day, the Rangers' bullpen had a 3.74 ERA, tied for fourth in the American League with the Blue Jays themselves. Even so, the group has struggled on the road of late, having posted an 8.33 ERA (25 ER in 27 IP) over the last eight games away from Arlington.

Any bullpen game feels like an uphill climb, regardless of the numbers.

“It's hard, right?” Quantrill asked rhetorically. “You're asking for a lot of guys to have good days; [for] five or six guys to have good days. I thought we did a really nice job of kind of surviving a little bit of a pushback in the middle there. I don't know if we could or couldn't use [Jakob Junis] and [Jacob] Latz, but I don't think we wanted to. And to get a win without your top guys is always a bonus, for sure.”

That pushback Quantrill mentioned came loudly in the fifth inning, after his departure.

Rookie Robby Ahlstrom struggled with his command, allowing a two-run homer before recording an out in the fifth inning. Joe Ross relieved him and allowed two runs in 1 1/3 innings of work. With Schumaker hoping to stay away from the high-leverage duo of Junis and Latz, somebody else was going to need to step up.

“Going out for that last inning, that's kind of what I said,” said right-hander Peyton Gray. “I was like, ‘We're trying to not use too many guys, so I might as well go back out.’”

Was he thinking he had to be the guy to step up?

“Yeah, essentially,” Gray said with a laugh.

The Rangers’ 31-year-old rookie threw 2 1/3 scoreless innings behind Ross and ahead of Tyler Alexander, who collected his third save of the season with a perfect ninth inning.

“The fact that [Tyler] closed this game out was incredible,” Schumaker said. “I didn't have him available until right before the game. And to have Peyton Gray go two-plus innings, I mean, they all did an incredible job. It's a credit to the pitching coach [Jordan Tiegs] and his staff of what he was able to do, and figuring out exactly the right lanes for these guys to fit in.”

It wasn’t without its bumps, especially in the middle innings. But with Quantrill in the lead and rookie Gray stepping up, the Rangers were able to muscle through a major victory.

“They’re warriors,” said first baseman Jake Burger, who went 3-for-4 with two RBIs in the win. “I think that's the underappreciated part of the game, those bullpen guys. They take the ball whenever they're asked. We couldn't have done it without them today.

“Cal obviously sets the tone right away, and stays in after he takes the comebacker off of his calf. That's warrior mentality. I think that's what this team needs more of. That’s a guy I'm going to battle with every single night. It's really awesome seeing the bullpen get the credit today. Doing what they did is really, really impressive.”