Rangers' quest for .500 remains elusive after loss in KC

KANSAS CITY -- The quest for .500 continues to elude the Rangers. Texas has reached the .500 mark 10 times in 2026 -- the most in the Majors -- but they have not seen a .500 record since May 1, after a win in Detroit to put them at 16-16.

With co-ace Nathan Eovaldi on the mound on Tuesday night in Kansas City, they should definitely have had a chance to finally reach the elusive .500 mark. But a promising night saw an early lead disintegrate rapidly when Eovaldi gave up four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Rangers ultimately fell, 5-3, dropping to two games below .500 once again.

“Oh gosh, I didn't really think of that today,” manager Skip Schumaker said of the .500 marker. “I just thought of trying to win the first game of the series. We had a really good pitcher on the mound, we had traffic all game. We just couldn't get that big hit to separate and give our starting pitcher a bigger cushion. We were up two runs, and it still felt like we should have been up four or five runs. We let a team get back into it, and it ended up costing the game.”

They've now dropped five straight games when sitting at one game below .500.

And the loss was emblematic of what a lot of this season has felt like for the Rangers, despite the fact that they have still won seven of their last 10 games, including a sweep over these same Royals in Arlington from May 29-31.

Eovaldi was really good until he wasn't. The offense scored early, but not often, stranding six on base. The Rangers had more hits than the Royals (9-8), but just two went for extra bases, compared to Kansas City’s six.

But through four innings, things looked to be moving in the right direction. The offense scored a run in the second and fourth innings, while Eovaldi cruised through four frames himself, holding the Royals hitless with just two walks from Bobby Witt Jr. and Kyle Isbel.

Entering the day, the Rangers were 24-5 when scoring first.

The first hit Eovaldi allowed was a leadoff homer from Jac Caglianone in the bottom of the fifth inning. The two had an 11-pitch battle in the second inning that resulted in a walk, but to that point, all other Royals not named Jac Caglianone were 0-for-14 with a pair of walks.

Things spiraled one inning later. Facing the top of the Royals' lineup for a third time, Eovaldi surrendered a pair of doubles and a triple and left the game before having to face Caglianone again. But the damage had been done when he exited the game with two outs.

“I left some pitches up in the zone,” Eovaldi explained. “I threw a good splitter to [Carter] Jensen. I tried to double up and left it middle. I just have to do a better job in those situations, in those situations of executing my pitches, especially being at the top part of their lineup, of course. …It’s just frustrating, because again, we were doing a good job. We scored runs early. I just got to be better in those spots.”

Eovaldi has now allowed at least four runs in each of his last three outings since May 28. Before that, he had allowed three or fewer runs in four straight starts.

This is the second start in a row where he’s cruised through the early part of the evening before laboring to get to the finish line. Even so, Schumaker did not consider lifting his ace early. After all, Eovaldi has earned that type of trust over his time in Texas.

“He didn't give up a hit until the fifth inning,” Schumaker said. “He had 70 pitches, maybe going into the sixth inning, so he was rolling. It wasn't like it was 90-something pitches in the seventh inning, where I was debating on whether or not to go get him again through that kind of lane. It was going to be tough to not send him back out that inning with a very, very low pitch count. We are going to need starting pitchers to go deeper in games. A game like today felt like he was going out in the sixth. There's no way I was going to take him out after five, with 70 pitches.”

In hindsight, Schumaker said, it didn’t work out, obviously.

And the Rangers will have to wait a few more days for yet another attempt at .500.