The Texas Rangers have spent the last week bouncing between extremes, but they enter Saturday with a chance to keep the momentum rolling.
After getting swept in Houston last weekend and losing their grip on the AL West lead, Texas returned home, made one move on deadline day and then committed five errors in a loss to San Francisco. Since then, though, the Rangers have strung together three straight wins, capped by Friday’s 2-1 victory over Baltimore. That sets them up for a shot at a fourth in a row when the Orioles come back to Globe Life Field.
At 58-58, Texas is still chasing in two places. The Rangers sit 1.5 games behind the Astros in the AL West, and Houston owns the tiebreaker after winning the season series.
Texas also has work to do in the wild-card chase, where it holds a half-game edge over the Minnesota Twins and Cleveland Guardians for the final spot. The Rangers are finished with Cleveland and close the season at Minnesota.
With 46 games left, the margin for error is thin.
Saturday’s matchup puts Jacob deGrom on the mound for Texas against Orioles right-hander Kyle Bradish. deGrom is 7-7 with a 3.96 ERA, while Bradish is 7-10 with a 3.79 ERA. First pitch is set for 6:15 p.m., with the game on Fox/Fox One and radio coverage on KRLD 1080 and KFLC 1270 for Texas, plus 98 Rock 97.9 FM and WBAL 1090 AM for Baltimore.
Texas will lean on a few hitters who have either handled Bradish well or are swinging the bat with confidence. Elías Díaz has seen Bradish only briefly, but he’s the lone Rangers hitter with a hit against him, going 1-for-3 lifetime. Since arriving in late May, Díaz has given the club a solid lift, hitting .245/.270/.391 with three home runs and 14 RBI in 43 games.
Ezequiel Duran is another name worth watching. He has just two lifetime at-bats against Bradish and hasn’t collected a hit yet, but he comes in hot.
Over his last seven games, Duran is batting .346/.393/.577 with a home run and six RBI. With Josh Jung sidelined by a strained left calf, Duran is handling third base every day.
There’s also a familiar name on the other side. Orioles first baseman Pete Alonso and deGrom were teammates with the Mets from 2019-22, and Alonso has had success against his former teammate.
In four at-bats, he’s hitting .500 with a 1.650 OPS, along with a home run and two RBI. That makes him one of the more dangerous bats in Saturday’s matchup.
In Other News...
George Springer Could Fill A Rangers Need At The Perfect Time
The trade deadline always has a way of turning familiar names into plausible fits, and George Springer has become one of those cases around the Rangers. Toronto has not moved him yet, even with the Blue Jays fading out of playoff contention and his contract set to expire after this season. Springer has battled injuries, but he is healthy now, and that alone keeps him in the conversation for clubs looking for an upgrade without having to wait on a long recovery timeline.
For Texas, the appeal is obvious if the front office decides to keep pushing for offense in the right spot. Springer still brings the kind of experience and on-base presence that can matter in a hurry, especially for a contender trying to line up a run down the stretch. Toronto has publicly said it wants him to stay, so there is still a real chance he never leaves, but the situation has the feel of something that could shift fast if the Blue Jays change course. [Read more 🡒]
Athletics Are Stuck In An AL West Failure Nobody Can Ignore
The AL West has turned into a strange kind of cautionary tale this season, one defined less by a race at the top than by how thoroughly every club in the division has stumbled. For the first time since the current divisional setup began in 2013, all five teams are sitting in negative run differential territory, a messy snapshot of a group that has spent the year dealing with injuries, downturns and a general lack of consistency. Even the Astros, still pacing the division, are doing it with a negative run differential of their own, leaning heavily on Yordan Alvarez to keep them afloat.
For the Rangers, it is part of a broader division-wide slide that has already triggered changes elsewhere, including the Athletics moving on from longtime general manager David Forst and the Angels dismissing Perry Minasian earlier in the year. When front offices start turning over and contenders are winning without really separating from the pack, it says plenty about the kind of season the AL West has become. The Rangers are still trying to sort through their own place in that chaos, but the larger picture is hard to miss: nobody in the division has managed to look steady for long. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Showed Restraint On Adley Rutschman For One Important Reason
The Orioles decision to move Adley Rutschman to Boston sent a ripple through the catcher market, and the Rangers were right there among the teams keeping tabs. Texas had interest in the switch-hitting star, but not enough to push past what the Red Sox put together in a trade package built around multiple prospects and a player to be named later.
For the Rangers, the restraint made sense in part because of where Rutschman stands physically right now. He is on the injured list with a wrist issue and is expected to start a rehab assignment soon, which complicates any conversation about giving up a premium return. Texas liked the player, but it also showed a willingness to let Boston carry the bigger risk in a deal that could look very different once Rutschman is back on the field. [Read more 🡒]