The Texas Rangers are walking into a weekend series with Toronto and the matchup card does them no favors.
After getting a break in their current set against Boston by not seeing left-handers Payton Tolle or Ranger Suarez, Texas now has to deal with a Blue Jays rotation that looks plenty nasty from top to bottom. Toronto opens the series Friday with All-Star right-hander Dylan Cease, and that is about as tough a first punch as the Rangers could have drawn.
Cease, 30, is 11-5 with a 2.38 ERA, a 1.06 WHIP and 236 strikeouts in 166 1/3 innings this season. He signed a seven-year, $210 million deal with Toronto over the winter, and the Blue Jays have every reason to feel good about that investment. MLB noted that Cease has struck out at least seven batters in 19 straight starts, matching the last single-season run of that kind by Randy Johnson in 2001.
Saturday doesn’t look much easier. Toronto is lined up to send right-hander José Soriano to the mound, a pitcher the club acquired from the Los Angeles Angels on Aug.
- Soriano’s work since arriving in Toronto has been uneven, with a 4.27 ERA in eight starts, but his season line is still strong at 3.56 ERA over 169 1/3 innings.
He also came within two outs of a no-hitter in his last outing, carrying one into the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers on Monday at Rogers Centre.
The finale could bring another problem if the Blue Jays choose to use Trey Yesavage on Sunday. Toronto has not officially named its starter, but The Athletic’s Mitch Bannon reported that Yesavage threw a rehab start for Triple-A Buffalo on Tuesday and is scheduled to throw a bullpen session in Texas. Yesavage has been out since early August with a torn left meniscus in his left knee, and he had surgery to repair it.
His rehab outing was rough - two runs allowed on 34 pitches, and he didn’t get out of the first inning. Still, the Rangers would not be catching a break if he shows up Sunday.
Yesavage has put together a strong rookie season with a 3.65 ERA across 93 2/3 innings. In Toronto’s 2025 World Series run, he posted a 3.58 ERA and 1.05 WHIP with 39 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings over his first three career starts.
If he does pitch, the expectation is that he’ll be on a tight pitch count.
Texas does have some help on its side in the form of its own rotation. The Rangers will counter with Kumar Rocker in Friday’s opener, Cal Quantrill on Saturday and Jacob deGrom on Sunday. Quantrill has been rolling since Aug. 1, when his 1.84 ERA ranked fourth among qualified starters. deGrom, even while dealing with a sore groin, has still delivered a mix of grit and overpowering stuff in recent starts.
The Rangers enter the weekend after dropping the final game of the Red Sox series, which left them one game behind the Houston Astros in the AL West. Houston, meanwhile, faces the NL East-leading Atlanta Braves this weekend, giving Texas a chance to make up ground.
That makes the Toronto series matter on both fronts. A good weekend would help the Rangers in the wild-card race, and if the Astros stumble against Atlanta, Texas could find a path back into the division chase despite the tie-breaker edge Houston currently holds.
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Two Former Rangers Could Give Texas A Huge Weekend Boost
Two familiar arms are lined up to matter in a race Texas is watching closely from afar. Tyler Mahle and Martin Perez, both former Rangers pitchers, are scheduled to start for the Braves in upcoming games against the Astros, giving the weekend a little extra relevance for a club still trying to stay in the thick of the AL West picture.
Mahle and Perez each had successful stretches in Texas before moving on, and both are now part of Atlantas rotation. If they can help slow Houston, it could create a small but meaningful opening for the Rangers in the division race, the kind of indirect boost that does not show up in the standings right away but can still be felt once the dust settles. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Have One Clear Edge In This Tight Division Race
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Rangers Let Another Golden Chance Slip Away Late
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Trevor Story changed all of that in the eighth with a three-run homer that swung the game and sent Texas away with another frustrating result. The loss keeps the Rangers chasing Houston in the AL West, and now they have to regroup quickly with Toronto next on the schedule and Kumar Rocker expected to take the ball. [Read more 🡒]