ARLINGTON -- After a newsy Trade Deadline day that ultimately led to no major moves for the Rangers, they opened the homestand with a loss and ended it with another loss.
But sandwiched between the two losses was a four-game win streak that kept the Rangers at .500. The Rangers won the series against the Orioles this weekend, but were unable to complete the sweep on Sunday, falling 10-5 to close out the homestand at Globe Life Field before heading on yet another pivotal road trip between Anaheim and Oakland.
“I think it was a good homestand, all things considered,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “Obviously, you want to win each series, which we did. But this is the big leagues. It's still hard to win games. Anaheim is still a good team. We’re not just going to go in and win the series. You gotta beat them. I never think that there’s a part of the schedule that's the easier part or harder part. It's always hard, in my opinion, and so you know we got our work cut out for us in Anaheim, and let's start there before we get to [West] Sacramento.”
Here are three takeaways from the series/homestand/game:
Have to play clean baseball
In the first loss of the homestand, the Rangers defense committed a season-high five errors against the Giants. In Sunday’s loss, Texas recorded no official errors. But it was one play that wasn’t made that changed the game.
With runners on second and third and two out in the first inning, Rangers starter Kumar Rocker was slow to cover first base on Dylan Beavers' hard-hit ground ball to Jake Burger that drove in a run. Had Rocker made it to the bag on time, it would have ended the inning with no runs scored. Instead, the Orioles got ahead 2-0 and never relinquished that lead.
“I think it was absolutely a momentum-changing play,” Schumaker said. “Unfortunately, he was late getting over, and a guy with decent speed got there no problem. It was a difference-making play pretty early on. … Unfortunately, it happened at the wrong time. It wasn't like it was two outs, nobody on. It’s something that he knows. It's not like it hasn't been talked about. I think overall, he's done a really good job of cleaning a lot of stuff up. I'm hoping it doesn't happen again.”
“I didn't feel like I showed up ready to play and that kind of carried onto the field and set the tone,” Rocker added. “I made a costly error, allowed those runs, and then didn't give the guys any momentum to begin with. That's just on me.”
It really does begin with starting pitching
The Rangers pitching staff had allowed just six total runs during the four-game winning streak, with two contests against the Giants and two against the Orioles. Two pitchers -- Rocker and Jordan Montgomery -- allowed seven through the first four innings in Sunday’s loss to Baltimore.
Rocker allowed six runs in three innings. Montgomery -- relegated to the bullpen with the Rangers' plethora of starters -- allowed three runs in four innings in his first taste of big league action since Sept. 22, 2024, with the Diamondbacks.
“[Rocker’s] last couple starts have been pretty good,” Schumaker said. “Guys are going to have starts here and there that aren't what they want them to be. I thought they took some good at-bats against him. There's a couple pitches that maybe were just left over the middle. He didn't utilize the split today. Maybe he could have. But the stuff looked fine. It was missed execution and location today.”
Big boys have to play like big boys
Schumaker said it best on Saturday night, when Corey Seager launched a three-run homer to all but secure a victory.
“You've heard me use the term aircraft carriers, and that's what they look like,” Schumaker said. “Corey Seager is that guy. Jacob deGrom is that guy. … Having Seager back -- hopefully the rest of the season -- changes everything. It puts people in different spots in the order. It puts people in positions that they should probably be playing more often at. Obviously you have to always circle somebody in the middle of the order. You're always looking at Corey, and we haven't had that for a lot of the year.”
In Sunday’s loss, the Rangers scored five runs, but stranded eight on base. Seager’s not the only star on this team. Joc Pederson has been elite at the top of the lineup since the start of May. Wyatt Langford seems to have finally hit his stride after a trio of injuries of his own. Brandon Nimmo, who had a three-run homer in the third, has been an absolute revelation of an addition to the lineup this season.
A big part of the Rangers’ success down the stretch will come down to the big bats doing what they need to do.
“I thought we took some decent at-bats,” Schumaker said. “We got the starter out pretty quick. Nimmo had a great day. We had some hard contact early, some good walks, some deep counts. So I thought we did a pretty good job. We scored five runs, but just obviously wasn't enough.”