Gore holds Phils hitless until 6th inning in impressive Rangers debut

PHILADELPHIA -- What a day for the new guys.

A trio of new Rangers made their presence known in the club's 8-3 victory over the Phillies in Sunday afternoon's series finale at Citizens Bank Park. While Brandon Nimmo and Andrew McCutchen each launched their first Texas homer, starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore mowed through Philadelphia's lineup for much of his debut with the club.

It was a much-needed outing for the Rangers, whose bullpen was already thin due to using Jacob deGrom getting scratched from his season debut on Saturday -- a game that ended up going 10 innings.

“We needed him to get at least into the sixth inning with the way our bullpen was set up, and three or four guys down,” said manager Skip Schumaker. “We knew we were in trouble if he got [knocked] out of the game early or something happened. He was not only on the attack, but he got us into the sixth inning. It was exactly what we wanted.

"He'd probably tell you the first-pitch strikes probably weren't where he wanted them to be, but that just tells you what kind of stuff he has to get out of innings -- get out of jams -- against a really good lineup. I'm excited that he's a Ranger.”

Gore, whom the Rangers acquired from the Nationals on Jan. 22 in exchange for five of their Top 30 prospects, did not allow a hit against the Phillies through five innings. He finally allowed his first hit in the sixth inning, when center fielder Justin Crawford reached on a swinging bunt that dribbled up the line into no-man’s land between the mound and third base, with third baseman Josh Jung shifted toward shortstop.

Gore went from no-hitting the Phillies to finding himself in the middle of a bases-loaded jam with nobody out. He struck out Bryce Harper for the first out of the inning, but hit Alec Bohm to put the Phillies on the board -- and end his day. Cole Winn took over the bases-loaded jam, allowing just one of the inherited runners to score on a sacrifice fly.

That closed the line on Gore, who ultimately allowed two runs off two hits and three walks while striking out seven over 5 1/3 innings.

“I know this team pretty well,” said Gore, who had 13 strikeouts over six innings of one-hit ball in his 2025 debut -- also against the Phillies. “I understand that if you make mistakes, they can do damage. We stayed out of the heart of the plate for the most part, executed enough. We were able to get ahead, we had a good mix and we were really aggressive. If you do that against any team, you can have success. They're really good when you get bad counts, as you could see in the sixth [inning], and we just executed enough and made pitches when we needed to.”

The Rangers traded for Gore, in part, to further stabilize a rotation that already had a Major League-leading 3.41 ERA in 2025.

Gore posted a 4.17 ERA over 159 2/3 innings in 2025, earning his first All-Star bid following a first half in which he had a 3.02 ERA in 110 1/3 innings. He also had career highs in strikeouts (185), quality starts (14) and WAR (3.0, per Baseball-Reference) across his 30 starts with the Nats.

Gore not only adds another weapon to the pitching staff, but the Rangers think he can be even better. Sunday was just the start of what the staff believes can be another elite season from him.

“He's faced these guys a ton, right?” Schumaker said. “The last thing you can do is get into patterns. I thought his two-seamer was really good. Fastball at the top, so he could play up and he could play to the side. The cutter was really good; changeup, too. If he gets ahead, it's really tough. I think he'd tell you that he was able to get back into counts with other pitches, which really helped him get into the sixth inning.

"If he gets first-pitch strikes, I mean, this guy will go far. He's an All-Star for a reason.”