ARLINGTON -- If you’ve heard this story before, well, you’re not the only one.
It happened basically every other game in 2025 and once or twice during the Rangers' current homestand.
The pitching was phenomenal against the Yankees Tuesday night at Globe Life Field. Rangers ace Jacob deGrom allowed one run on a pair of two-out hits to Aaron Judge and Cody Bellinger in the first inning. Afterwards, he allowed just two more baserunners (single, E4) over his next five frames to collect a quality start.
But as the story has often gone lately, the Rangers' offense -- which was two outs away from being shut out by Cam Schlittler and Co. -- made a valiant effort at the end before eventually falling, 3-2, for the club's third straight loss.
“Their guy did a good job,” deGrom said of Schlittler. “I gotta tip my hat to him. Cam threw the ball well, and going into the night, I knew he had been throwing the ball well, so I was going out there and trying to put up zeros to give our guys a chance.”
But unfortunately at the end of the day, nothing deGrom did mattered when the offense was unable to score for much of the night. Texas collected more hits than New York (7-5), but it was unable to get any runs across until the ninth inning, stranding 10 runners on base.
In the loss, the Rangers went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position and 2-for-15 with runners on base at all. Compare that to 5-for-19 with the bases empty, and it’s clear that getting hits and getting on base isn’t the issue. It’s driving in runs.
Texas has been good at working counts and drawing walks in most situations this year. But manager Skip Schumaker said he believes the lineup has been expanding the zone more in those higher-leverage at-bats.
On two different occasions in the loss -- the sixth and eighth innings -- the Rangers had two runners on and nobody out. That lead runner never even made it to third base.
“We expanded, again, a little bit in the seventh and eighth innings,” said Schumaker. “In the last inning, I thought we did a really good job at getting the right guys up at the right time. We just couldn't get that last tying run in. We made a run at it towards the end. We just couldn't cash in.”
It’s been a running theme lately. The Texas lineup has been on base at a high enough clip to win games. They can’t cash in.
The Texas lineup has been on base in 21 of 27 innings over the past three games. Despite the traffic on the basepaths, the Rangers have scored only five total runs in the three losses, going 4-for-47 (.085) with runners on base and 3-for-24 (.125) with runners in scoring position.
They’ve scored in just four of the 27 innings over the three-game losing streak.
Going back even further, over this recent 3-7 stretch dating back to April 18, the Rangers have left 79 men on base.
“They're definitely working hard and trying to fight their way out of some stuff,” Schumaker said of the offense's struggles. “I think in scoring position, potentially, we are trying to force it, maybe. That's fair with some guys, not everybody. Expanding has definitely been -- with runners in scoring position -- the main issue, in my opinion. When there's nobody on, we're OK.”