SEATTLE -- Can a fantasy football draft change the momentum of a season?
The Rangers are hoping theirs, held on Monday’s off-day, can. Or, at the very least, that it can keep momentum going.
Hours before first pitch at T-Mobile Park, a group of Rangers veterans filed out of manager Skip Schumaker’s office in the visitors' clubhouse.
“I have these conversations once a month, so this is nothing new,” Schumaker said of the seemingly impromptu meeting.
Schumaker opted to keep the specifics of what was said in this particular meeting to himself and the players. But one thing was clear as the club heads on what could be yet another season-defining road trip between Seattle and Phoenix.
“You’ve got one chance in 2026,” Schumaker said. “There's a message that needs to be sent in our group that it's an unbelievable team win [Sunday against the Rays] and how do you carry that momentum into the next series with the day off? I’m just making sure that I'm not missing anything, making sure they're not missing anything, to make sure that we're going at it this thing the right way. That's kind of the questions and conversations that we had.”
Whatever was said, it carried weight.
The Rangers open the series in Seattle with a 10-5 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park on Tuesday night as they continue to dig themselves out of a hole to get to the postseason.
“I have meetings with guys all the time,” Schumaker reiterated postgame. “We lose games after those meetings sometimes, too. I don't think it's that. I think it's just momentum swinging from the game before, after a big win, going into the off-day, having a really good kind of team bonding thing, and rolling into today.”
More than whatever meeting he had with his players, Schumaker said he felt like the aforementioned team bonding activity on Monday kept the good vibes going from Sunday's win over the Rays. That bonding? The fantasy football draft.
“There's something to having a thing where everybody comes together and has some camaraderie,” said infielder Justin Foscue. “Fantasy football is fun, right? Everybody is into it. Everybody has their kind of way they go about it. Everybody loves to talk smack with each other. So it's fun that we have something like that that everybody's involved in. It keeps your mind kind of floating around. You're not so serious about baseball all the time, right? It keeps you loose. And these last couple weeks, it's something to follow along while we're in this playoff push.”
Whatever the reason, it was a dominant victory for the Rangers, who had not scored double-digit runs at T-Mobile Park since May 28, 2019 (11 runs). They did it three times that season.
And here's where you get your daily reminder that the Rangers are 52-18 when scoring first.
Scratch that, 53-18.
Score early. It’s as simple as that for the Rangers. They accomplished that on Tuesday.
“An early home run would be the greatest thing ever, right?” Schumaker joked pregame.
Corey Seager delivered with a solo shot in the first inning to get the scoring started, while Cal Quantrill continued his run of quality starts on the other end. The Rangers scored five in the fifth thanks to homers from Wyatt Langford and Danny Jansen to blow the game wide open.
Schumaker said he felt like the momentum changing play from the night was when Foscue had a bases-loaded, pinch-hit RBI single in the fourth inning, to extend the Rangers’ lead to four runs at the time.
From start to finish, it felt like the brand of baseball the Rangers have been wanting to play for months now.
“I think today is a good example of what we're capable of,” Quantrill said. “We played great D. We were on the attack, the entire game, both pitchers and hitters. They never were comfortable. I think that that's the kind of brand of baseball we know we can play. We just need to do it consistently for our last 17, 18 games.”