ARLINGTON -- Skip Schumaker admitted it would probably be a long night for himself and the Rangers' hitting coaches.
It goes without saying that they probably needed the braintrust to get together after getting no-hit by three Astros’ pitchers on Monday night.
“We have long nights in general, anyway,” Schumaker said pregame. “I don't want you to think that it was much different than any other night. … I think when you have a game like last night, it’s on us as a staff to come in and make sure that there’s not a carryover. It's a new day, positive outlook, and we’re trying to figure out a way to win tonight, and also learn from what happened yesterday.”
Whatever happened overnight, and whatever happened in Tuesday’s hitters’ meeting, clearly paid off.
The Rangers scored eight runs on five hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch in the first inning against Astros starter Jason Alexander on Tuesday night. They sent 11 batters to the plate, with the inning capped off by a Joc Pederson three-run shot in his second plate appearance of the frame, propelling Texas to a 10-7 win at Globe Life Field.
“[Baseball] doesn’t make any sense sometimes,” Schumaker said postgame.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Texas’ eight runs are the second-most by a team in the first inning of a game that was immediately following their being no-hit, behind only the Chicago White Sox logging a nine-run first inning on Sept. 27, 1905, on the back end of the doubleheader against the Boston Americans. Boston threw a no-hitter in Game 1.
It is also the Rangers’ highest scoring single inning of the 2026 season and biggest first inning since an eight-run frame at Detroit in 2012.
“I think we all know we're better than [last night],” said Evan Carter, who was a double shy of the cycle. “It's just one of those things that everybody is not overhauling anything. Everybody knows we're better than that. So we just wanted to come in today and make our game plan like we always do. I think that everybody was really convicted in that -- taking the bats for each other and swinging it like we wanted to swing it.”
Carter said he felt like veteran outfielder Brandon Nimmo -- who collected the Rangers’ first hit of the day -- played a big part in inspiring the hitting group over the last 24 hours. He spoke about team efforts and team plans, as opposed to individual efforts and individual plans. It wasn’t a dramatic rallying of the troops. But it did the job.
That type of messaging always means more when it comes from another player, Schumaker said.
“I feel like it was yesterday that Nimmo kind of said some things that really stuck with a lot of people, and maybe it just took a day to sink in,” Carter said. “He's extremely passionate, and on top of that, he's really talented. When he says some things, it makes you get fired up. He really cares about winning every single day, no matter what that looks like.”
But one inning does not a good offense make.
The Rangers only mustered one hit between the second and seventh innings, a solo homer from Carter in the third.
Their inability to add onto an already monstrous lead allowed the Astros to claw their way back into the game, and ultimately forced Texas to use its high-leverage arms in the eighth and ninth innings. Texas finally collected three singles in the eighth to add on another insurance run for a four-run lead, but the game was ultimately much closer than it ever should have been.
“We were talking about it in the dugout, trying to figure out how that guy was still in the game,” Schumaker said of Alexander. “He did an excellent job [bouncing back]. We just couldn't get anything going in the middle innings. The middle innings were not … I don't really want to talk about those. I like to focus on the first and the eighth. I feel better about those innings.”
At the end of the day, a win like this shows the character of this team and its ability to respond to adversity. However cliché that may be, they responded in the perfect way.
“I think that's the biggest thing, how quickly can you flush something?” Schumaker said. “I think a lot of these players, it was still on their mind, maybe a little bit today -- what happened last night -- but they came in with a really good vibe and really good energy. I just felt like the [bad] energy did not carry over, which was my biggest, I don't want to say concern, but I just didn't want that to be the case. I thought the coaches did a really good job of not letting that happen. I thought the players did a really good job of moving on, moving forward the right way.”