Nimmo channels inner goldfish, resilient Rangers rally for first win of second half

ATLANTA -- Brandon Nimmo isn’t shy about quoting one of his favorite shows, “Ted Lasso.”

“Be a goldfish,” the fictional soccer coach says in season 1 of the Emmy Award-winning show.

Luckily for Nimmo, he’s had ample opportunities to use that motto this season. Both fortunately and unfortunately, that really does apply to the Rangers. Having a short memory is part of baseball, the part that this club has succeeded the most with this season.

But let’s start with the bad news: The Rangers opened the second half of the 2026 season with a 14-run loss to the Braves on Friday night, marking the club’s largest margin of defeat since losing by the same margin on Sept. 13, 2021, against the Astros. It was not fun.

But the good news is that in games following a loss by six or more runs this season, the Rangers are 8-4 (.666), the fourth-best such record in MLB (Braves, .875; Nationals, .800; Blue Jays, .778). Entering Saturday’s matchup, Texas had slashed .288/.359/.497 with 5.73 runs per game in those contests.

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said it’s always about how you respond to getting your butt kicked. And what a response they had.

The Rangers beat the Braves, 7-6, on Saturday at Truist Park.

“I said it, and I was hopeful it was going to happen,” Schumaker said. “It did. It was a good team win. … I don't want it to be a trademark a lot, though, because I don't want to get blown out, right? But [the ability to bounce back], that's part of like the veterans in there, the culture that you try to create and establish.”

And it wasn’t easy either.

Joc Pederson opened the contest with a 419-foot solo shot into the Chop House, his fourth leadoff home run of the season. But the Braves quickly collected four runs in the second inning and another off a Michael Harris II solo shot in the third.

But a four-run sixth inning, which included a two-run homer from Evan Carter and three straight two-out singles, allowed the Rangers to retake the lead by just enough runs to stave off any Braves comeback attempt.

“The guys are really coming in with a lot of resiliency and just looking at it as a new day,” said Nimmo, who collected three RBIs in the win. “I’m really, really proud of these guys. I'm honestly more impressed [that after the Braves scored] five runs against us -- five runs is tough after yesterday -- they just never gave up. They didn't let it stop the good at-bats.

"We just kept trying to chip away one at a time. It was really, really impressive to me to see that kind of resiliency, because it would have been very easy to get down. [The Braves] are a very good team; they're very hard to come back on.”

Schumaker even said this type of in-game resilience goes back to starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore, who allowed five runs in the first three innings before locking down for the final 2 2/3 frames on a day when he didn’t have his best stuff.

His ability to eat all those innings and keep the game where it was set the Rangers' offense up perfectly for a late-game victory.

“I think these guys are just really resilient,” Nimmo said. “We’ve got really, really good character guys in here that don't really care what happened yesterday, whether it's good or bad. It doesn't mean anything. We still have to go in today, and we have to try and win the game. You're just seeing guys that understand the assignment that you kind of have to be a goldfish.”