The Rangers are down to their last nine games, and the AL West race is still tight enough that every break matters. Texas still has to handle its own business, but this weekend offers a chance for a little outside help from two familiar arms now wearing Braves uniforms.
Tyler Mahle and Martin Perez are both scheduled to start for Atlanta against the Astros, and if either one looks anything like the pitchers Texas once leaned on in Arlington, that could matter plenty in the standings. Houston owns the tiebreaker, so any stumble by the Astros could loom large with the season nearly finished.
Mahle gets the first crack at it Friday night in Houston against Peter Lambert and the Astros. During his two seasons with the Rangers in 2024 and 2025, he went 6-5 with a 2.91 ERA and struck out 76 batters in 79.1 innings.
Injuries limited him in both years, but when he was on the mound, he was effective. Since being traded from San Francisco at the deadline, he has settled in nicely with Atlanta, going 3-1 with a 1.25 ERA and 0.92 WHIP over 43.1 innings.
He also brings a full mix of pitches that can make life miserable for hitters: a four-seam fastball, splitter, cutter, slider and sinker. If that package shows up against Houston, Rangers fans will be watching closely.
Perez is next on Sunday, and he’ll face Hunter Brown in the series finale. The left-hander has had two separate runs with Texas, first from 2012-2018 and again from 2022-2023, and he finished with 65 wins and 61 losses in a Rangers uniform. His best season came in 2022, when he posted a 12-8 record, a 2.89 ERA and 5.1 bWAR, while earning his only All-Star selection.
Now 35, Perez still works with the kind of craft that has defined him for years, leaning on location and changing speeds to keep hitters off balance. If he can navigate a lineup featuring Jeremy Peña, Yordan Alvarez and the rest of the Astros, that would be a welcome sight for Texas.
The timing is what makes this weekend so interesting. The Rangers are set to face the Toronto Blue Jays, and these three-game serieses are the toughest remaining challenge for both clubs.
Toronto is a tough assignment, but Atlanta presents an even stronger opponent. That’s why any help Texas gets against Houston could be decisive.
Mahle and Perez were both well-liked in the clubhouse during their time with the Rangers, so pulling for them is easy enough. Pulling for them to do it against the Astros, with Texas chasing the division and the postseason picture hanging in the balance, would make it even better.
In Other News...
Rangers Make A Pitching Choice That Says Plenty About This Finale
The Rangers are leaning on Cody Bradford for the series finale, and the assignment says plenty about how they want to navigate the end of this stretch. The left-hander will take the ball against Bostons Sonny Gray on extra rest, giving Texas a chance to get through a game that matters without overtaxing a pitching staff that has already had to be managed carefully.
Bradford has been held to limited innings in recent starts, so the Rangers are clearly prepared to monitor him closely and adjust on the fly if needed. With several bullpen options available behind him, Texas is trying to balance winning the finale with keeping enough arms fresh for the games ahead, a calculation that has become part of the rhythm this time of year. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Have One Bullpen Problem They Must Fix For A Late Push
The Rangers have made a habit of turning late leads into wins, and the back end of the bullpen has been a big reason why. Jacob Latz has helped lock things down after the seventh inning, and Texas is 61-1 when it gets ahead at that point, a stat that says plenty about how hard this club has been to beat once it reaches the finish line.
The bigger concern has come earlier, in the middle innings, where the fifth through seventh have been a trouble spot for preserving those advantages. Recent upticks from Chase Silseth, Tyler Alexander and Robert Garcia offer at least a workable path forward, and Texas could use that kind of stability to bridge games more cleanly to Latz as it tries to make its late push. [Read more 🡒]
Rangers Turn Tense September Night Into A First-Place Push
A tense September night at Globe Life Field ended with the Rangers back at .500 and back in first place in the American League West, a place they have spent much of the month trying to claw toward. In a come-from-behind win over the Red Sox, Texas got enough from a pitching staff that was asked to keep piecing things together, with MacKenzie Gore and Nathan Eovaldi both covering multiple innings and Jakob Junis helping bridge the middle of the game.
The bigger takeaway for Texas is how much tighter the race has become as the final stretch approaches. The Rangers are tied for first in the division and still right in the mix in the Wild Card chase, which gives every late-inning at-bat a little extra weight. They were sharp with runners in scoring position against Boston, and now they carry that urgency into a September where one good night can change the picture quickly. [Read more 🡒]