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Right on Rangers is where Rangers fans ride the season in real time.
The LIVE shows are the heartbeat. Big wins, ugly losses, bullpen chaos, breakout heaters, trade rumors, roster debates, and the takes that come with actually caring about this team.
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If you want sterile box-score recaps, this probably isn’t your show. If you want passionate Rangers talk with actual baseball underneath it, welcome in.
Hi and welcome to another edition of Right
on Rangers Live coming at you immediately after
a 7-1 victory over the Toronto Blue
Jays.
The Rangers taking game one of three, gaining
a game on the Houston Astros who lost
just moments ago to the Atlanta Braves.
And we are back in a tie for
the AL West and we will see what
the rest of the weekend holds, but this
sure is a good start.
And you did it in a Kumar Rocker
outing as well.
And I know maybe that sounds disrespectful off
the tongue, but the fact that you got
this kind of outing from Rocker with Cal
Q and Jacob deGrom in your back pocket,
cannot underscore that enough.
I know Rocker didn't give you a lot
of length today, but I think we have
to start with Kumar and the job that
he did giving the Rangers essentially five innings
of shutout baseball.
I was impressed.
I would love for Rock to turn into
that guy you can count on for seven
frames, who wouldn't?
But I will 100% take this start
from him in what was pretty much a
must win game.
I mean, look, it might not have been
that big of a deal because of the
Houston loss, but nevertheless, this start has the
most pressure I think of any that Rocker
has thrown this year.
And you didn't have any kind of implosion.
You didn't have any kind of meltdown.
In fact, you had Rock throwing up a
bunch of goose eggs every inning.
Have to start with Kumar Rocker.
We've been so hard on Kumar this year,
I feel like on the ups and downs
of his season.
You know, he has a couple of nice
outings in a row.
He has a couple that just make you
feel like he needs to be in the
minor leagues.
I don't think that one night, by the
way, completely gives you the verdict on Kumar,
but I do think that you give him
all of the flowers and credit you can
for this evening, for this fall game, and
what he's able to do for a Rangers
team that badly needs wins right now with
limited time remaining.
You have got eight games now left in
your season.
Eight.
You have to figure out a way to
get this done.
And this is a good start.
The Rangers take game one.
You've got Cal Q, your best pitcher in 2026,
throwing tomorrow.
You've got Jacob deGrom, your ace $38 million
player on Sunday.
It's set up well.
You cannot say that the Rangers aren't throwing
their best, aren't throwing the kitchen sink at
it.
They are.
They 100% are.
And I think at this point, you are
eyeing a sweep.
We said two out of three, and I
do think two out of three, not the
end of the world, but with your two
best pitchers back-to-back days, Saturday, Sunday.
Limited excuses in my mind as to why
you can't go out there and win a
series.
You're at home.
You play better at home.
You're a winning team at home.
You're a completely opposite team, road versus home.
Rangers playing in Arlington, they're a playoff team.
They are.
The numbers back that up wholeheartedly.
Away, obviously, that's a bit of a different
story.
We talked so much coming into this homestand
about how you had to take advantage of
the nine games that you have to end
this season.
The most home games of any of the
playoff teams that are still in this race,
Houston, Cleveland, White Sox, Blue Jays.
You had to be the team with the
home games taking advantage, and you did that
tonight.
And so far, it has been a good
homestand.
You didn't love what happened last night.
Nobody did.
You cannot keep dropping games like that.
But this was a great response.
The video I put out today, one of
my biggest worries, was last night going to
start the downward spiral.
Now, I didn't predict it.
I didn't say that was what's gonna happen.
But I did say this team has sometimes
had a knack for losing a heartbreaker after
a three or four game win streak, and
then totally soiling the bed.
Four straight losses, five straight losses.
And you saw the response that you wish
you could have seen all year long when
this team dropped the game after a nice
streak.
You got that tonight.
We're gonna talk all about it.
Great to be hanging out with you on
a Friday night.
And look, playoff baseball, I can smell it.
I can smell it.
I already told y'all my prediction.
I'm not saying it makes any sense.
I'm not saying it is rooted in analytical
fact.
But I am saying, I think they find
a way to make it in.
It just feels like a weird, chaotic season
in which the Rangers find a way.
And it doesn't make a whole lot of
sense.
I'm not gonna sit here and come up
with five reasons why necessarily I could.
I just think because baseball, because baseball.
I think the Rangers find a way, somehow,
in some shape or form, they'll be playing
in October, and I'm here for it.
After a two year absence, you're this close.
You have to get it over the finish
line.
Well, you know the drill.
Here at Right on Rangers, we cover everything
Texas sports.
But we put a huge emphasis on the
Rangers during the MLB season.
And we thank you for choosing Ride On
Rangers for all of your Texas Rangers content.
Drop a comment, drop a question.
We are pretty much all post-game today.
Literally went live, hit the live button, just
as my boy Alejandro Osuna made the final
out.
Man, it is good to see him back.
I know that not many people have the
amount of love that I do for Alejandro
Osuna.
But my goodness, it is good to see
that man back in Rangers threat.
Particularly on Tejas night.
And what a night for Osuna, getting to
meet Chicharito.
Man, that was phenomenal for him.
I can only imagine that dude was just
a kid in a candy shop getting to
meet him.
Yeah, a legend like that, a soccer legend
in Mexico.
Very cool for Alejandro.
Chicharito threw out the first pitch.
Alejandro was catching.
It looked like a strike to me.
They showed the replay of it.
Alejandro didn't have to move too much.
It was a bit of an eephus, but
nevertheless, you don't see a lot of people
throwing it right down the pipe.
It's good stuff.
All right, let's get into the analysis of
this one a little bit.
And I will 100% be checking comments
and questions along the way.
Let's do it.
Giving ABs to Evan Carter, it is not
the time.
Look, I wanna be careful.
I don't wanna go too negative on the
show tonight.
But I will say this.
It was disappointing.
Evan Carter had some opportunities tonight and you
were really hoping he was going to do
a little bit more with him.
I know he had the little squibber that
went off Jake Burger's head ultimately for a
run.
Look, if you're Evan Carter, I'm sure you'll
take it just about however you can.
But Evan Carter tonight, 0 for 4, did
technically, I think, get an RBI on that
play.
Crazy.
That's why sometimes you just, you can't always
really trust some of the things that you
see.
The RBI, I guess, for it going off
the head, or did I miss a sacrifice
fly?
Yeah.
The official scoring in baseball games, it doesn't
make a whole lot of sense at times.
But nevertheless, Evan Carter, I have definitely been
critical of.
I love Evan.
I think he's a great dude.
I think he's got a nice ceiling.
He's not meeting it right now.
I do think Chris Young and Skip Schumaker,
for all the talk that they have put
forth about playing the hot hand, Evan Carter,
to me, is a bit of a head
scratcher.
I think it's very obvious.
I know that this isn't rooted in fact,
or research, journalistic, all that good stuff.
But it just feels like favoritism.
I've said that.
It feels like there's a little favoritism there.
I don't know what else really makes sense.
I mean, you think about Evan Carter over
the last 30 games, hitting 177.
Evan Carter won for his last 14, six
for his last 36.
The numbers aren't great for Evan.
Now, I will say this.
I know a lot of people were pissed
off that Evan did not get pinch hit
for in the early frames.
I actually agree with what Skip Schumaker did,
keeping him in the game in a four
run lead.
I don't really love having to put Zeke
Duran out there in center field, and then
you have Cody Freeman, you have maybe Nicky
Lopez still in the infield.
I think with a four run lead, you
want your best defense out there.
I know that some of you guys, and
I understand the other side of it.
This isn't really a hill that I'm trying
to die on.
I gotta be real with you guys.
But I see the other side, like you
wanna take advantage of the bases loaded opportunity.
There's two outs.
It's what, the fourth inning?
Is it the fourth inning where he had
that bases loaded opportunity?
I actually think that it was okay that
Skip didn't pinch hit there.
You're gonna bring in probably Foscue, and then
at that point, you're moving Foscue probably to
third base, or you're moving Nicky Lopez to
third base, or you're subbing out Foscue for
Cody Freeman so he could play third base.
I know Foscue was kind of the name
I saw thrown out.
Why didn't you have Foscue hit for Evan
Carter?
Well, Nicky Lopez was already in the game.
I guess you could have taken out Nicky
Lopez.
I just think Lopez at second, Zeke at
third, Carter in center field is probably your
best defensive alignment.
And with a four run lead, I get
it.
The bullpen has not been great.
You wanted to tack on there.
I don't think that was criminal.
I mean, last night, not running Wyatt Langford
in the ninth inning, that was criminal.
I don't think that not pinch hitting there
for Evan Carter in the fourth inning in
a game where you're up four already, where
hypothetically speaking, pitching and defense should be able
to get the job done.
We know no lead is safe, but at
the same time, I just didn't think that
that was egregious.
In the moment, it's frustrating because Evan Carter,
the AB was bad.
It didn't look good and it didn't work
out.
But I do think in hindsight, even, you
live with it.
You can disagree with it, but I think
you live with it.
I don't think you point to that like,
man, that was some monumental moment in the
game.
It's frustrating.
I hate that Evan Carter is not able
to come through.
You wanna see Evan Carter do well.
I do.
I know that there's some people out there
that only catch me here and there that
think I hate the guy.
I really don't.
I wanna see Evan Carter start raking again.
I have actually put out there multiple times,
multiple posts over the past month, would love
to see him turn the clock back to
at least the similar or a close by,
nearby zip code of 2023.
Would have loved to see that.
For me, tonight is a night to focus
on the positives.
We can nitpick why didn't Skip pinch hit
Evan Carter in the fourth inning?
They ultimately win the ball game seven to
one.
And at the time you were leading by
four.
To me, I'm not going crazy.
You're not gonna see me rant on that
move from Skip tonight.
I think you can disagree with it.
And again, it's not a hill that I'm
dying on either way, one way or another,
not trying to fight anybody over it.
I just think there's much more egregious moves
that you've seen from Skip in the last
154 ball games than that.
That being said, you've got a very small
margin for error right now.
And I understand how every move at this
point is getting put under the magnifying glass,
no doubt.
We keep going, appreciate all you guys hanging
out.
Cody, what's good?
Comment from you too.
We all know what EC is capable of,
just weird that he never got optioned, even
when he soiled the bed 90% of
the season.
The injuries, we talked about this, Cody, like
a couple of weeks ago, I wanna say.
Evan Carter, I think was going to potentially
stay down in the minor leagues for an
extended time period.
He played in one, I think one rehab
game and then Wyatt Langford got hurt for
the second time this year.
And that really ruined things.
I thought the best play for Evan Carter
would have been really to slow play that
rehab assignment.
Remember it was the Cleveland series, we were
in Cleveland, Wyatt got hurt.
Evan Carter had played like a Friday night
down at AA Frisco.
And then they called him up on Saturday
to play in the Cleveland series.
He had played one rehab game.
I think he hit a home run.
So I mean, he definitely was feeling it
there for a day, but Evan should have
gotten about a week, week and a half
down there.
And instead he only got one game.
I don't know if that would have made
a difference or if he would have needed
a longer stay than that, but I do
agree.
And if not for injuries, Josh Jung as
well, I think that put another wrinkle in
it.
Evan might've seen a little bit more time
in the minor leagues this year.
And I think that probably would have been
helpful for him, but you just never got
a super healthy run.
And I think that is why Evan stays
up with the big club.
I know some people are gonna cite the
defense and they're not completely wrong.
I do think at this point, and I've
seen many people make this point, this isn't
me just digging out something brand new.
I think long-term, you've gotta hit the
hard reset button on Carter.
He's gonna have to limp it out for
this year.
And maybe he does figure it out randomly
because baseball, that's our term of the night.
Maybe he figures it out.
But I feel like right now, hard reset
in the off season, whatever you're doing, change
it.
It's not working.
Fix it.
Hopefully Evan Carter can get the swing right.
The Rangers need that.
You need a guy like Evan.
He's a second rounder, 2020.
One of your top prospects at one point,
gotta get that guy right.
We'll keep rolling.
Absolutely agree with this, Austin.
Thank you for the comment on Facebook here.
I think it's safe to say the goal
should be to sweep the series.
I think it's a partial failure if they
don't with Cal Q and deGrom going in the last
two games.
Exactly what we said to open up the
show, Austin.
So you and I are in lockstep on
this one.
You've got your best two pitchers lined up.
You've gotta figure out a way to sweep
it.
I don't think you get on here and
you gloom and doom if they don't.
If you win the series, I think that's
enough.
But if we're being totally real, keeping it
100, it's disappointing if you don't sweep the
series at this point.
It's a disappointment.
It's not the end of the world, but
it's a disappointment.
We keep rolling.
We definitely need vintage deGrom on Sunday.
Once again, we need vintage deGrom.
Now we need the offense to show up.
We definitely need more outputs like this.
Absolutely.
Like this was a solid night from the
offense.
It didn't have to come down to Latz-y
in the ball game at the very end.
It was great.
And let's show some love to Trevor Williams.
My goodness, four innings, two hits, four strikeouts.
Now has a sparkling 2.73 ERA Trevor Williams.
Hello.
Good for him, man.
I absolutely loved what they got from Williams
tonight.
And it was huge.
You didn't have to use Latz-y.
You didn't have to use Garcia.
You got Junis a night off.
You pretty much got everybody beyond Alexander a
night off.
That's outstanding.
You do have an off day coming up
on Monday, I believe.
So that's nice.
So you basically, you've got two games.
You got an off day Monday, and then
you've got the home stretch, Tuesday to Sunday
to end the season.
Let's get it.
Let's get it.
Whew.
Let's see, what am I missing on TikTok?
If anything.
Move Wyatt to center field, Big Tech says.
Comment from TikTok here.
And Osuna to left.
I have been a proponent of Wyatt playing
center field, but with all of these reports
that he's dealing with ailments and injuries that
came out, what, a couple of weeks ago
maybe, I've kind of cooled a little bit
on the idea of making Wyatt a center
fielder at this point.
I do think it's an interesting concept for
the off season.
In fact, I said, I think they ought
to throw Zeke Duran out there and just
make him your full-time center fielder.
I think you can live with some different
third baseman.
Obviously, Josh Jung will be in that mix.
And you guys know, I'm not the biggest
fan of Josh Jung, the fielder.
Huge fan of Josh Jung, the hitter.
Think he's the best pure hitter on the
team right now.
But I think you'll live with Josh Jung
at third.
If you have Nicky Lopez or Cody Freeman
playing second.
Foscue, I think, has actually done a decent
job with the glove as well.
Zeke Duran in center field, really, to me,
makes a lot of sense.
I know that he's a really good infielder,
probably a gold glove infielder at this point,
but I would not be shy about playing
Zeke a little bit more in center field.
Yeah, you definitely take a couple of notches,
a couple of pegs down defensively, go into
Young at third base instead of Duran.
I do like Josh Jung DH-ing.
I think it makes a lot of sense.
Defensively, it's a smart move.
Right now, it's unfortunate Evan Carter's kind of
putting you in a spot where you're really
getting almost nothing offensively.
I know some people are gonna bring up
how he walks and how he can bunt
and all that good stuff.
It's a bit of a black hole.
I think we have to call a spade
a spade here.
Evan Carter's spot in the lineup.
It's a bit of a black hole right
now.
That being said, we gotta be reminded, the
Rangers won a baseball game today and it
all worked out in the end.
I know some of us are still frustrated
about Evan Carter not getting pinch hit for,
I'll just say this to keep it short,
four run lead, I'm okay with it.
If it was a one or a two
run deficit or advantage, I probably would feel
differently.
Four run lead, to me, I'm okay with
what Skip did.
I don't think it's as egregious as, let's
say again, not stealing Wyatt Langford last night
in the top of the ninth inning.
Appreciate the likes, by the way.
Thank you so much.
Let's keep on rolling.
We got a lot of good stuff to
talk about.
We got college football coming up tomorrow.
We got NFL on Sunday.
We got near playoff baseball going on.
Man, it's gonna be a good weekend.
Yeah, so let's just get right into it
here.
The Rangers tonight, what impressed me the most
is how they kept adding on, right?
You scored the four in the bottom of
the second, but then you scored in the
fifth.
You scored in the sixth.
You scored in the eighth.
You kept piling on.
That has been a knock on the Rangers,
really, all season long.
You score once, you score three or four,
and then you never score again.
Tonight, the Rangers spaced it out a little
bit, kept tacking on.
Blue Jays put up a run in the
top of the fifth.
Rangers went ahead and answered it in the
bottom half.
That's the way you've gotta do it.
That's one of the pillars of winning baseball.
You respond when a team scores a run
on you.
You go out there and you put up
a run.
Shutdown inning.
Rangers got the shutdown inning in the sixth
after the Blue Jays scored their lone run.
Rangers scored first tonight.
Just a lot of winning baseball.
Lot of winning baseball this evening.
And look, Texas made Cease miserable once again.
I think when you consider the walks, he
had six of them tonight.
When you think about the pitch count, I
mean, look, he entered with an 11-5
record, 2.38 ERA, 236 strikeouts, a 1.06
whip.
And you drew four walks against him early
on.
You added on another two later on in
his outing.
Scored four, knocked him out before he could
really record an out in the third inning.
So impressive.
And they did this to Dylan Cease in
Toronto too.
A couple of you guys were bringing that
up.
They weren't mashing homers off of him necessarily,
but they just made him work.
That was huge.
And for the rest of the series, it's
huge because you made Toronto get into their
bullpen.
Love the fact that they just put the
ball in play.
They took the walks.
They weren't giving away free outs.
Toronto makes mistakes.
Texas was cashing them in.
Just a really encouraging way to win a
game.
When you beat a pitcher as good as
Cease, the way that the Rangers did tonight.
Look, Rocker tonight, we talked through his outing.
Was he dominant, elite?
I would probably stop short of that.
But I do think that what you got
from Rocker tonight was very, very good and
worthy of praise.
He definitely could have came out tonight and
totally crapped the bed.
He didn't.
He locked down and gave you a very
solid chance to win the game.
More than that.
And so impressive from Rock.
He kept Toronto off the board through the
first four.
Gave Texas a manageable game while the lineup
kept on building that lead, man.
And look, we talked about this last night.
He had already thrown six scoreless innings against
Toronto in June.
So he's now given Texas really two very
useful outings against the Blue Jays this year.
Good for him.
Richard, yes, sir.
Let's go Rangers, baby.
We already talked through Trevor Williams.
Yeah, Trevor Williams bridging the game to the
late innings in probably one of the most
important moments of the season, right?
Just like we all drew it up in
spring training.
Trevor Williams bridging the game to the late
frames in one of the most important innings,
one of the most important moments of the
season.
Baseball's great sometimes, man.
Definitely have to give some flowers to Trevor
for what he did out there on the
mound.
Like last night, the bullpen and all of
the mixing and matching, it was interesting, right?
We talked about why Williams maybe wasn't used
last night.
I think you have a good idea of
what Skip was thinking.
Being able to use Williams in bulk tonight
absolutely mattered a ton, especially when you think
about the rest of the series and how
it's shaping up.
And I think, too, when you consider the
fact that yesterday was a really brutal, gut
-wrenching loss, this team has sometimes been susceptible
to a slide after a game like that.
You win three or four in a row,
you lose a heartbreaker, and you immediately take
a dump.
And the Rangers came out tonight and were
resilient and showed you exactly what you wanna
see.
They got knocked down, they got right back
up, and went back to winning baseball.
They punched first, they never let Toronto rally
in this one.
The one time Toronto did score, Texas answers
right back.
Good stuff from the offense tonight, good stuff
from the pitching.
It was really a complete game from both
sides of the ball, offense and defense tonight.
Couldn't be prouder of the boys, man.
What a game.
You needed this one.
You gain a game on Houston, you look
around the rest of the league, you look
at what Cleveland did tonight.
Cleveland, they won again, right?
They beat the A's, I believe, and the
White Sox, they managed to lose.
They are now 78 and 76.
Wild card is not totally out of the
picture for Texas, but with the White Sox
taking over that third spot, you're in a
position where you don't have the tiebreaker over
Chicago.
You were kind of hoping that Cleveland was
gonna be that third wild card team because
you do have the tiebreaker over the Guardians.
Guardians have won three in a row now.
The easiest path does appear to be, at
this point, easiest path does appear to be
winning the division.
The Guardians are now four games over 500.
Rangers are two games behind the Guardians, technically
speaking.
You would love to see the Rangers have
multiple options, not be tied down to just
one path or the other.
Right now, though, essentially, you have a better
shot with the division because of Chicago falling
to that last wild card spot.
Texas is a game behind Chicago, technically two
games, and they are even with Houston at
this point, and they need a game clear
in order to be the AL West division
champions.
See if it can happen tomorrow.
Wouldn't that be crazy?
This time tomorrow, we're on top of the
AL West?
Yes, sir.
Zane says, going to the game tomorrow, how
we feeling?
We're feeling good.
Cal Q on the mound.
I'm always feeling good when Cal Q is
on the mound, baby.
Always.
Cal Q, I think, is gonna give you
a great shot tomorrow, and I'm looking forward
to it.
Let's see.
Let's keep rolling.
What do we got?
Comments.
Nate says, on YouTube, our track record against
Cease continues to look good.
It does.
They've had two really good games against Cease
this year.
Love to see it.
On, let's see, somebody was asking about pitching
matchups.
They have not determined, at least on MLB,
they have not shown who is gonna be
the Blue Jays starter on Sunday.
Yesavage might be the guy.
I have heard speculation he's going.
Tomorrow is Soriano.
Might be Yesavage on Sunday.
I could definitely see that happening.
Cal against Toronto.
Cal against Canada.
He had a great outing last time.
Would love to see him do something like
what he did in Toronto in June once
more here in Arlington in September.
That would be phenomenal.
Cachow says, Nimmo has been ice cold.
We need to check his last 30 ABs.
I got you, my guy.
I got you.
0-3 tonight for Nimmo.
He did, I believe, have a, he had
a couple of walks tonight, so at least
he was on base.
Nimmo is batting 175 over his last 15
games.
He is six for his last 26.
The 15 game is the one that stands
out, man.
175 with a 482 OPS.
Yuck.
Oh, jeez.
Brandon, Nimmo, where are you, my guy?
We need you.
Look, 482 OPS for Brandon Nimmo in his
last 15 games.
That is not ideal when you got your
middle-of-the-order hitter doing something like
that.
At least they won.
But Tecumseh, yes, he is definitely in a
slump.
Absolutely in a slump.
You want to see Brandon, such a good
dude.
Badly want to see that guy break out
of it.
Suki, Rocker did have to cover for his
base tonight.
The first batter of the game tested Rocker's
ability to cover first base.
First batter of the game, man.
He barely got over there.
He almost didn't cover it.
First batter of the game, Rock had to
get on his horse to get over there.
Nearly whiffed on that opportunity.
Bacsik was actually getting on him.
He's like, man, too slow off the mound.
I appreciated that.
Just calling it like it is.
Both Raymond and Bacsik, I think, are a
little fed up with the Rocker lack of
efficient covering of the bag over there.
A lot of Rangers fans are, to be
fair.
But sometimes the RSN guys kind of sugarcoat,
don't really go in on people too much.
You can tell they're a little irritated with
Rocker, as a lot of Rangers fans are
when it comes to the first base covering.
YouTube comment here, Arlington will be crazy on
Sunday.
Rangers and Cowboys playing less than a mile
away.
That will be.
What times, though, are those games?
I'm assuming Rangers is gonna be like 135.
Yup, Rangers is 135.
What's Cowboys?
Cowboys on Sunday are playing at 125, so
325.
Okay, it's still gonna be busy.
But, I mean, at least you have a
couple of hours of separation there.
All right, YouTube comment.
Priority number one for Rocker's offseason needs to
be covering first base.
Look, I'm gonna say first inning woes, the
first inning issues, the secondary pitches, gaining control
of those, getting a really good out pitch
mastered, that to me are one and two.
And I think covering first base, fielding your
position is definitely in the top three.
It's absolutely in the top three.
Chris, 130 and 315.
Okay, so you've got a couple hours of
separation, but not a ton.
And you know people are gonna be out
there doing the tailgating thing.
You know that's gonna be the case.
What a game, good stuff.
Love that the Rangers really didn't make us
sweat too much in this one.
It got a little dicey there for a
second, but we really didn't have to sweat
too much.
Josh Smith making his return.
That was fun to see.
Smitty had a nice play there at second
base, but did not really factor offensively.
Shockingly, by the way, it feels like whenever
a former Ranger comes back, you always have
them like Lioti did.
Hitting doubles, going deep, something bad.
But Josh Smith, quiet tonight, 0 for 3.
Did reach via the walk, but otherwise had
a pretty quiet evening up at the plate.
It was good to see Smitty again.
It does look weird him being in a
Blue Jays uni, but good to see him
again.
Hopefully he can stay quiet the rest of
the way and then go on a tear
immediately after he leaves Arlington.
Would love that.
Comment from Tecumseh here, TikTok.
Bases loaded, should have gotten more runs.
Absolutely, the Rangers left way too many on
base today.
It probably should have been a double digit
offensive output.
Rangers were 4 for 15 with runners in
scoring position.
It's pretty good, but they left 12 on
base.
And this game could have gotten ugly pretty
quickly.
Rangers really did not take full advantage of
the bases loaded scenarios, but what more is
new?
What else is new at this point?
We're pretty used to the Rangers doing some
interesting things when you have got the bases
loaded.
And that's me being nice, by the way.
Eaglecraft, Rangers win, Texas Tech wins, Strohs lose,
really good night.
Hey, there you go.
Who did Tech play tonight?
I knew they were playing, but I had
no clue what the game was, who they
were playing, or what was going on in
the game.
Didn't keep my eye on it at all.
But we definitely, I know, have a lot
of Red Raider fans that follow the show,
so good for y'all tonight.
Good stuff.
Houston, okay, that's solid, man.
What a win.
Very, very solid, that's great.
Hey, congrats, all you guys that are Red
Raiders fans.
You know that we cover the Longhorns on
the show.
Hopefully they can manage tomorrow.
I think they'll be all right.
UTSA, the mighty UTSA.
Tennessee's gonna be the big game for the
Longhorns in a couple weeks here, but good
for the Red Raiders, man.
I always tell people the story.
I actually, even though I really loved the
Longhorns for the longest time growing up, I
really did enjoy cheering for the Red Raiders.
But once Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree entered
the picture, I feel like ever since then,
it's just hard for me to cheer for
them.
I'm not saying that I hate them like
I do, like OU or A&M, but
they just broke my heart so badly in
that game in 2008.
Some of y'all Red Raiders fans know
exactly what I'm talking about.
Look, at the end of the day, I
will probably 100% rock with the Red
Raiders over any other Texas team, if given
the opportunity.
We'll definitely be following how they do.
Impressive win, though, against Houston.
That's great.
Roll tide.
Doug Deuce, all right, then.
All right, then.
College football is great, isn't it?
I love how we all come together for
Rangers baseball, but we got a lot of
different allegiances when it comes to football on
Saturdays and Sundays.
Let's see, what else we got?
Was afraid Josh was gonna haunt us.
Oh, absolutely.
Oh, you talking about Hambone when he went
to the Angels?
I really worried about that one.
We're talking about former players haunting the Rangers.
We were talking about Josh Smith earlier, Smitty
0-3 with the walk tonight.
I really did think Hambone was going to
be a guy that haunted the Rangers for
a long time.
He had a little bit of a rough
exit, the drop ball against Oakland to lose
the division in 2012, right?
Then in 2013, he goes to the Angels,
signs the contract.
I really did think he was gonna terrorize
us, and it just never worked out for
Josh in Anaheim.
I mean, I don't wanna say fortunately, because
I'm a big Josh Hamilton fan, but I'm
glad that he wasn't crushing us left and
right.
He had some down years with the Angels.
On the plus side, Sugi says, YouTube comment
here, I doubt we'll have a lot of
bases loaded opportunities in the playoffs.
I mean, well, hopefully we do, but man,
you don't have a ton of confidence right
now with the bases loaded.
Like, you really don't at this point.
I don't know how to explain it, but
I guess as long as you're scoring runs,
I'm happy.
I'm okay with it, but oh my goodness.
The bases loaded situations, I have never seen
a season where the Rangers have been this
poor with the bases juiced.
It's almost inexplicable, it really is.
It's very inexplicable.
Rangers have to figure this out, man.
Hopefully, like we've talked about, it's not gonna
make sense, but hopefully just a switch flips
and you have Texas all of a sudden,
last week of the year, playoffs, if they're
blessed to get there, just raking with the
bases loaded, right?
That would be on point with this 2026
season that just makes little to no sense.
It has been an up and down year,
but here we are, tied for the division
lead with the Houston Astros with eight games
left to go.
So all you can ask for, I mean,
you'd love to be up 10 games right
now, but at least you're playing meaningful baseball
in September.
You haven't done that the last couple of
years.
You did it for about a week last
year before the Rangers went down to Houston
and just totally rolled over.
Beyond that, it hasn't been a lot of
meaningful baseball in late September for Texas, and
it is a sight for sore eyes.
Nimmo and Carter, Byron, what's good?
YouTube comment here.
Nimmo and Carter have definitely been a reason
why there hasn't been a little bit more
lift.
Langford, I'll throw him in there.
If you had Nimmo, Langford, and Carter all
raking right now, you would have a pretty
dangerous team.
You really would.
Nimmo, Carter, and Langford really all aren't hitting
right now, and at the beginning of the
year, those were three of the guys that
you expected to hit more than anybody else.
I think you would throw Josh Jung and
Corey Seager in there, no doubt, but you
were expecting Nimmo to do 25 bombs, 92
RBI.
You were expecting Evan Carter to have a
really good rebound year after a good offseason.
You were expecting Wyatt Langford to be a
30-30 guy.
Imagine if this offense had consistency from Langford,
Carter, and Nimmo.
That would be a bit scary.
I don't know if they're ever gonna get
those three guys in sync with each other,
but that would be scary if they did,
it really would be.
Jordan Montgomery, to come to ease, he was
pitching the other night.
I think they were thinking about throwing him
in there tonight, but Williams was just cruising.
He was cruising.
Right now, absolutely is the time to get
hot.
A Longhorn Walcott bat.
We talked about, do you bring up Walcott
when the rosters expand, and I know there
were varying opinions on that.
I maybe would've given that a shot.
He could still come up with an injury.
I don't think you're rooting for anybody to
get hurt at this point, but I'm excited
for Sebastian Walcott.
I think he needs to be the starting
third baseman next year.
That doesn't mean you have to get rid
of Josh Jung.
It just means you gotta reposition a little
bit, maybe a little more DH opportunities.
Maybe you have Josh play a little first
base.
I think you can definitely have your cake
and eat it too.
You don't have to get rid of Young.
You could trade Josh Jung.
I just think it would be ridiculous to
not have Walcott up on the major league
roster next year unless he just takes a
massive step back in spring training next year
and just looks awful.
Otherwise, I think you should give him a
shot.
Duck Deuce, I'm a little, you know, the
comment was like they still can't hit.
I am a little bit nervous still about
the hitting and the offense and the consistency,
but you have them playing at home right
now.
I feel pretty good about them at home.
It's really on the road that I start
worrying a little bit more about the offense.
Offense seems to find a way when they
play at Globe Life.
I'm not saying they're a juggernaut magically when
they step on the field in Arlington, but
I do think they're a much better team
all the way around when they play at
GLF for sure.
TikTok comment, put Josh at first, sign C
.J. Abrams and Stevenson.
C.J. Abrams will be fun.
I don't know what you would do with
Seager.
Apparently they are locked in on him at
shortstop.
He doesn't want to move.
That would be a lot of fun.
It'd be nice to get a younger player
like that, but I'm not sure the Rangers
are willing to pay up at this point.
I have been a big fan of this
though.
Longhorn9090, appreciate you, man.
Thank you for the support.
Comment says they need youthful hitting, especially with
speed.
Yes, I've been banging this drum for so
long, my guys.
So great minds think alike here.
And like the college team you cheer for
too, by the way.
Let me give the follow real quick here,
man.
Thank you so much.
Oh, I hit you up with the request.
I definitely feel like the Rangers need to
get more athletic next year.
They need to have more speed.
They're an older team right now, and I
think that that can have its positives, right?
You can absolutely have a scenario where the
veterans lead you to the ship.
Kind of happened in 2023.
Evan Carter, rookie though, did help you out
a lot.
It is kind of, I would say, incoincidental.
You had a rookie really leading the charge
at the top of the order when you
won the World Series.
I definitely feel like that could be something
that happens again with Walcott.
Would love to see it.
Tecumseh says, why can't we steal second base
more often?
You guys already know.
I just think one of the failures of
the season, and I know this is tough
for some people to be able to do.
It's like, dude, we just won.
Why are you critiquing?
Well, guys, this is a well-rounded show.
We do a little bit of everything.
This is not just hype up left and
right.
It's a well-rounded analysis of all things
Texas Rangers.
We understand there was a win tonight.
And if you're a diehard like me, you
love talking about every facet of the team.
And you understand the right perspective to have.
And so all we're doing is we're talking
a little bit about philosophies.
We're going a little wide lens here.
We understand that there was a victory tonight.
I feel like that needs to be said.
But I do think it's a failure that
the Rangers came out so heavy handed in
spring training, talking about, we're gonna steal more.
We're going to take the extra base.
We're gonna put pressure on defenses.
And the Rangers this year have stolen less.
They're actually bottom five in stolen base attempts
this year.
They take the extra base less than they
did in 2025.
And I think in general, they put less
pressure on defenses as a result.
I feel like it's something they have to
address for next year.
We definitely got sold skip ball.
Skip was going to really revamp a lot
of the little things.
And you've seen a little more small ball
this year.
You've seen more bunting.
You've seen some hit and run stuff.
But man, they have to figure out how
to get better at stealing bags and taking
the extra base, which largely means going first
to third.
Going first to third is so huge in
baseball.
And the Rangers just don't do it enough.
They do have slow players.
Josh Jung is not gonna go first to
third.
Joc Pederson is not gonna go first to
third.
You've got a number of guys that are
just not fast, but you have quite a
few guys that are.
And the Rangers just have not done a
good enough job this year being aggressive on
the base paths, both stolen base wise and
taking the extra base.
It has to change.
There's no excuse.
Last night, there's no excuse that you don't
get Wyatt Langford at least an opportunity to
try to get the second.
And you let Jake Burger ground into a
double play to end the game.
That's just not acceptable.
I would never in a million years be
okay with that.
I don't know why the Rangers were, especially
with Burger in a righty-righty matchup.
It's not like lefty-righty Burger.
Burger against lefties continues to look like one
of the most dangerous hitters in the league.
By the way, Burger absolutely crushed that pitch
from Mantiply.
And I think you have got a real
weapon in Burger.
It's close, like Foscue versus Burger against lefties.
Both those dudes are just so incredibly dangerous
against Southpaws.
It is wild.
You almost kind of like our lineup a
little bit better against lefties right now because
you eliminate Evan Carter out of the lineup.
God bless you, Evan, not meaning to sound
disrespectful, but you get Evan Carter's bat out
of the lineup and you have Foscue and
Burger elite mode activated.
Now against righties, Burger looks extremely human and
so does Foscue, but against lefties, both those
dudes are becoming otherworldly at this point.
I think the other comment, just bringing it
full circle, the other comment that I have,
I think about, I think it was maybe
two weeks ago when Cam Cauley was up
and it was like a similar scenario.
They had Cam Cauley in the game in
the ninth inning.
They pinch ran Cam Cauley and it was
a one-run game and they didn't even
steal Cam Cauley, who legit is one of
the fastest players in baseball.
I think top five or top 10.
Cam Cauley is ridiculously fast, man.
I think he is in the 98th or
99th percentile, according to baseball savant.
I'm gonna go to his page right now
and see if I can get the read
for you.
Cam Cauley should be an automatic steal every
time, I mean, near every time.
Wyatt Langford is one of the faster players
in the game too.
I mean, it is ridiculous.
Cam Cauley is in the 100th percentile in
speed.
Like, and Skip, you guys remember this.
I forget what game it was, but you
have a guy that is in the 100th
percentile in speed in Cam Cauley.
He's now in AAA, but he was up
with the club.
You brought him in to pinch run in
the top of the ninth and you didn't
steal him.
You have like the fastest guy, if not
second fastest guy in the league.
It's ridiculous.
Longhorn says it's coaching, man.
They need the UT coach, Skip ain't it.
Oh, Schloss?
I wonder if he wants to even go
to the major leagues.
I'm sure there's some teams, maybe that'll be
a little more interested, especially with what the
Giants did, bringing on the Tennessee coach, right?
But at the end of the day, you've
just gotta get more aggressive.
If you're Skip, you talked a big game
about being more pressureful on the base pass,
being more impactful on the base pass, and
it really didn't happen this year.
Eric, good to see you, man.
I don't know if you're still hanging out,
but glad that you guys got a win
and hey, the Astros lost, everybody goes home
happy.
Everybody goes home happy, man.
Let's keep rolling.
You guys have been great tonight.
I appreciate all the comments.
We've got about 10 minutes left in the
show.
Let's talk through some Rangers news, a little
40-man pulse for you.
First of all, the Rangers did call up
Michel Otañez today.
They optioned Robby Ahlstrom and they transferred Cole
Wynn to the 60-day IL.
I don't imagine we're gonna see Cole Winn
again this year.
I don't know if there's a lot of
Rangers fans that are disappointed by that.
Cole did not have a great 2026, although
Cole is good people.
I've interacted with Cole a couple of different
times when the Express have come to Vegas.
Cole is good people, but he has not
had a good season.
And so for me, I do feel like
he will not be back until next year.
Hopefully, Otañez can give you some innings.
I thought maybe they would put Otañez in
today, but I just don't know if the
lead ever got totally comfortable enough, but I'm
not sure that Otañez will be up for
very long.
Carter Baumler, he is rehabbing at the moment.
I think Carter Baumler will probably be coming
up to replace Otañez eventually.
Baumler, I think, pitched a couple of days
ago.
I'm gonna look up right now if he
came into the game tonight or not at
Round Rock, and we'll do kind of a
little Round Rock checkup anyways.
Looks like Round Rock won today 5-2
over Tacoma.
Round Rock is playing at home.
I think this is one of the last
series of the season, right?
So box score, Cam Cauley, one for four
with an RBI.
Higgy, one for three.
I was about to say, dude, he hit
another home run.
Kyle Higashioka had homered in back-to-back
days.
Higgy is also on a rehab assignment right
now.
I'd imagine we're gonna see Higgy pretty soon
here.
O'Hoppe, oh for three.
No one else really of note.
Chavez, two for three.
He's had a good second half, .293 average
for Chavez.
Let's see, we did not have Baumler pitch.
Baumler did not pitch.
Bormie is doing really well, 2.89 ERA.
He got his fourth save of the year.
Peoples pitched tonight as well, scoreless inning.
Curvelo had two scoreless innings.
So Baumler, back-to-back days, he has
not pitched.
Wonder if they're giving him a little time.
Hopefully no setbacks or anything like that, but
there's the update for you in that regard.
And at this point, we're curious to see
what happens with the Higgy move.
I don't know who they're gonna send down.
Is it gonna be Osuna again?
Are they going to be getting rid of
somebody else?
I can't see the Rangers getting rid of
Higgy.
I mean, I guess they could technically cut
bait with him.
You're not gonna cut bait with Jansen.
I don't think you're gonna do that with
Diaz either.
We'll see what they decide to do with
Kyle Higashioka.
That is gonna be an interesting move, man,
for sure.
Very interesting.
Walcott is free now.
Riders were eliminated.
There you go.
Sookie, you're wrong for this.
YouTube comment, Cole win on the 60-day
IL.
That's a win, but you're wrong for that,
man.
Didn't make me laugh, though.
Cole, like I said, good people, but I
don't think that there's gonna be a lot
of people missing Cole Winn in the bullpen.
With that, we are going to start landing
this thing, man, on deck tomorrow.
We have got a 6:05 start time.
Soriano versus Quantrill.
Three things I'm watching.
Can Texas carry tonight's patient approach into another
good right-handed starting pitcher?
You got through Cease, another good starting pitcher
in Soriano tomorrow.
Soriano is 12 and seven with a 3.56
ERA, 160 strikeouts.
You'd love to see them take the approach
that they had tonight into tomorrow night's game
against Soriano.
I'm watching Quantrill, of course.
How does he respond?
Dealing with a little bit of injuries, some
back issues.
You're just hoping that Kyle comes out looking
healthy, looking like the steadiest piece in the
rotation, like he's been looking pretty much all
season long.
And at this point, you've got a chance
to win a series tomorrow with the Grom
in your back pocket for Sunday, hopefully going
for a sweep.
Houston has two more games against Atlanta.
Atlanta is a great team.
We said it last night, this is the
series where you really want to flip the
table against Houston.
You've got Houston playing an elite team.
You've got the Rangers playing a mid team.
I don't think Toronto's terrible.
I don't think they're good.
You've got Texas playing at home.
I know the Astros are at home this
weekend too.
This is the weekend, we said last night,
you would love to be in first place
coming out of this weekend.
Then you go into your series with the
Mets, which you should win, hopefully sweep.
This is the time to start stacking wins
when Houston is a little vulnerable.
Houston then goes and plays Seattle, in Seattle.
And we had actually one of the Houston
accounts, it was a TikTok account.
I forget what the name was, but they
basically said it was a Houston fan.
So we've had a lot of problems with
the A's and I think the A's in
Houston finish out the year.
Rangers finish against the Twins.
This is a great weekend to potentially take
advantage, man, and be sitting in first place
at the end of it.
Seattle will lose on purpose, they don't like
us.
Comment from TikTok there.
They better not, man.
For all the problems that Seattle gives us,
they better not.
Rangers, comment from YouTube here, haven't historically hit
Soriano well, from what I remember.
It's definitely gonna be tough.
Yeah, let's take a peek at the numbers.
Let's go to the preview real quick.
And then we're gonna finish this thing up.
So Burger actually mashes against Soriano.
Four for seven, Burger is against Soriano.
Carter, one for eight.
Duran, oh for three.
Diaz, one for four.
You've got Nicky Lopez, one for one.
Seager has a home run off Soriano, 364
average.
Langford is four for eight.
You've actually got some guys that can hit
Soriano.
I'm surprised, I'm a little surprised.
I thought if my memory served me well,
he had a pretty good game against us
the last time as well.
But hey, I guess we got a few
guys that actually see the ball pretty well
out of his hand.
That's good stuff.
All right, let's see what else we got.
Let's land this thing.
Tonight told me Texas can take a gut
punch loss like they had last night.
And that was a gut punch.
They can come back the next day and
play a complete baseball game against a direct
playoff contender.
And make no mistake, that is what happened
tonight.
A complete game, pitching was outstanding, starting pitching
was solid, bullpen was great.
The hitting came through, you left some things
on the table, sure.
But you scored seven runs, you'll take that
all the time.
Still a little unsure about whether or not
we can really turn this into a sustained
run.
I think this team has gotten your hopes
up a lot.
And then they've just hit a bit of
a wall.
I would love to see them get over
that wall with eight games left.
It's now or never, honestly.
They've got some good momentum here over this
stretch of games.
Let's continue it.
And then next thing I'm watching, we already
kind of talked about it, Quantrill versus Soriano
tomorrow.
Texas playing for a series win.
Possibly a chance to take first place over
Houston, depending on the result of the Braves
-Astros game.
Kunal, appreciate you.
I had a great time at the game
today, comment says, after being there for yesterday's
as well.
Hey, that's a night and day difference, isn't
it?
You saw last night's heartbreaker, you saw today's
very, very solid ball game.
Good for you, man.
Zach says, I feel like we're finally getting
hot at the right time, TikTok comment.
I am hoping you are right, brother.
Would love to see that come to fruition
and not just in the regular season, but
into the playoffs as well.
All right, y'all.
We are going to land this thing and
I'm gonna put you on hold for about
22, 23 hours here.
We'll be back next game about eighth or
ninth inning.
I know we went post game only today.
It'll be late, probably the eighth or ninth
frame and hopefully we're talking about a series
win and another Texas Rangers victory with an
opportunity for Jacob deGrom to go for the
sweep on Sunday.
We're gonna speak it into existence.
We're manifesting it right now and that would
be phenomenal.
Imagine a Houston sweep by Atlanta.
You sweep Houston if you're the Braves and
then the Rangers sweep the Jays.
That's the kind of stuff you need to
go your way.
Man, I am hoping that is what happens.
That would be beautiful.
I don't think there's anything better.
I don't know if that's happened this year.
We sweep and the Astros get swept.
I'd have to look that up.
That's the plan though and we're sticking to
it.
I hope you guys have a great rest
of your Friday night.
College football tomorrow.
I will be doing multiple lives tomorrow, by
the way.
So you will probably see me pop on
for the Longhorns live.
You'll see me pop on then for the
Rangers live.
So a busy day for right on Rangers
tomorrow.
So you'll get a little football.
Come hang out even if you're not a
Longhorns fan.
Come talk some college football.
Come talk some friendly trash and then we
will get together for Texas Rangers later on
in the evening.
So that is my plan.
Just to give you a heads up, we'll
have a couple of different content pieces out.
I'll have a Rangers reel out tomorrow.
I will have a Longhorns preview out tomorrow
as well and then we'll have our usual,
probably do a little Rangers birthday, a little
Texas Rangers history.
It's gonna be a great day.
It's going to be a great day.
Looking forward to it and then Cowboys on
Sunday.
Great weekend ahead, man.
I'm excited and what a great way to
kick it off with a 7-1 victory
over the Toronto Blue Jays.
Have a great rest of your night.
Hopefully see you tomorrow, if not later this
weekend and as I always say to end
every show, God bless and go Rangers.