ARLINGTON -- Jack Leiter is a thinker, manager Bruce Bochy said.
That’s not a bad thing, obviously, but the Rangers' rookie starting pitcher tends to get too caught up in anything and everything when he’s on the mound.
“He's a thinker out there,” Bochy said pregame. “He's very, very into the mechanical parts of the pitching too, as far as I'm just getting hitters out, but making sure it's all lined up. It’s something I know that is part of his game. And Evo [Nathan Eovaldi] and Jacob [deGrom] are the same. They're perfectionists, and so is Jack.”
“There's so many little things you can think about as a starting pitcher in this game,” Leiter added. “You can dive into all the little nuances, or you can keep it as simple as possible. ... I think I tend to think a lot as it is, so keeping it more on the simple end is better.”
He wasn’t perfect on Sunday. Pitchers almost never are. But Leiter did deal his first quality start in over a month, tossing six innings of one-run ball in the Rangers’ 6-4 loss in 12 innings to the Mariners at Globe Life Field.
All three games in the weekend series went to extra innings, marking the first time the Rangers have played three straight extra-inning games since Sept 6-8, 2012, with the first at Kansas City and the other two at Tampa Bay. This is the first time Texas has played the same team in three straight extra-inning contests.
Though the Rangers ultimately dropped the series, Leiter did everything he could to put the Rangers in a position to win on Sunday.
All seven hits Leiter allowed were singles, and six were ground balls that got through the infield. This is the fifth time this season he’s held the opposing team to no extra-base hits. He also collected a career-high seven strikeouts and -- more importantly -- no walks.
Leiter entered the day with eight walks against nine strikeouts over his last three starts, totaling a 1.59 strikeout-to-walk ratio (51 SO/32 BB) for the season, the second-worst in the American League. (1.55, the Angel's Jack Kochanowicz). His 32 walks lead all Rangers in 2025.
“I think it’s just about keeping that momentum, staying on the attack and trying to finish at-bats quick,” Leiter said. “There were a couple innings where maybe the pitch count got up a little bit and some deeper counts, but for the most part, we stayed on the attack and made it pretty clear that if they didn't want to swing early, they'd be 0-1 or 0-2. So we started to get earlier swings with two strikes.”
Bochy has mentioned multiple times that Leiter struggles to put guys away once it gets to a two-strike count. He’s often letting guys back into the plate appearance, driving up his pitch count and eventually giving up a hit or a walk to what should be an out, in theory.
“I think Jack, he's been really good at times, but he's been fairly consistent recently with how he's been letting hitters get back in the count,” Bochy said pregame. “That's an area that he's trying to get a little bit better at and just continuing to attack the zone. When he's doing well, that's what he does. Sometimes I think he tries, maybe, to make the perfect pitch instead of attacking the zone or even pitching to contact.”
It was going well on Sunday.
Only once did he get into a three-ball count. Only four other times did he get into a two-ball count. Leiter was constantly attacking the zone and forcing the Mariners to put the ball in play, while still collecting seven strikeouts.
“I'm definitely happy with the progress,” Leiter said. “Obviously, I wish we could have gotten a win. The bullpen has been great all year, and those guys kept us in it. I just think it could always be better from my end. But I'm definitely happy with a lot of things I did today.”