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Right on Rangers is where Rangers fans ride the season in real time.
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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 7-0
Rangers in the eighth inning.
Jacob deGrom, my goodness.
Vintage deGrom, as they like to say.
Five days after Chicago absolutely obliterated him.
Five walks, eight earned runs.
It's about as emphatic as a response as
you could ask for.
A's have managed just one hit all night
long.
Robby Ahlstrom in the game now.
The Rangers scored in four straight innings from
the second through the fifth.
Foscue's 10th homer providing the loudest swing.
Hadn't been some random one-off crooked inning,
right?
This has been Texas applying some pressure all
night long.
And this is exactly what this part of
the schedule is supposed to look like.
You are supposed to be doing this.
This is supposed to feel routine.
It hasn't all year against the A's and
the Angels, but you sure wish this is
what they could have been doing.
The Rangers could have been doing all year
long against these types of opponents.
Texas entered two games back in both races.
Gotta bank these favorable games.
Save the late inning stress for another opponent.
Bake some games here.
Start stacking some wins.
And let's make something of these last 25
now after this game.
24 games remaining in this 2026 season.
Well, hey, thank you for tuning in.
We are going to get to all of
your comments and questions along the way.
But first, here right on Rangers, we cover
everything Texas sports.
But we put a big emphasis on all
the teams we love from the great state
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And we thank you for choosing right on
Rangers for all of your Texas Rangers content.
Drop a comment, drop a question.
We'll definitely be a little bit more locked
in to the chat after the game is
over with.
We're top of the eighth, two outs now.
Robby Ahlstrom going to get a generous strike
three call.
And that is going to send this game
to the bottom of the eight.
Rangers will have final at bats with Evan
Carter, Joc Pederson and Cody Freeman up to
bat next.
Good to be hanging out with all y
'all and nice to be hanging out in
a game like this.
I posted at the, I would say maybe
the fifth or the sixth inning after the
Rangers.
I think it was the fifth inning.
They went up seven and nothing.
It's like how many no sweat wins has
Texas had this season?
I, how many no sweat wins less than
10, definitely less than 15.
No sweat wins have been incredibly hard to
come by.
If you're a fan of the Texas Rangers,
it feels like every game we played is
either close, gets close late, or is close
in the wrong direction.
Of course, the Rangers occasionally have gotten waxed
this year, but man, it does not feel
like it's been very frequent that we have
been blessed with a game where you could
just enjoy tacking on runs.
You just enjoy great pitching from the Grom,
the offense clicking.
This is the first time in a while
we've really been able, I feel to just
sit back and enjoy maybe the Monday night
Chicago game you throw in there.
But I mean, even that was a little
dicey at the beginning, this game, you just
really felt like at no point were the
athletics in control.
Love to see it.
Hope it continues, man.
You really do need, really do need to
have three against this team.
Two out of three is bare minimum.
You really need three against this team.
You're going to be facing the Rays later
this week.
We talked about that on the pod last
night slash this morning.
We talked about that on the live show
yesterday after the Rangers salvaged a game against
the Brewers.
We need three because it's only going to
get more difficult as the week goes on.
Lord Tubbington, a hundred percent agree.
I think the Grom gives you seven innings.
You got to feel good about that comment
from YouTube.
First time in a while.
I'm happy with pulling the Grom at 80
pitches.
No reason to extend them tonight.
You do have a pretty long week of
baseball coming up.
No off days, but at the same time,
you only have to cover the last two
innings of this one in a seven run
ball game.
I do think that it is definitely well
within reason to give Jacob deGrom the
last couple of innings off.
Would have been cool to see him going
into the eighth, maybe try and throw a
complete game shutout, but that's not really the
goal right now.
But this was definitely complete game shutout territory
for the Grom.
I mean, if you're just looking at the
numbers, I mean, what do you have had
to go over triple digits to get it?
Yeah, absolutely.
But tonight sitting at 85, man, that that's
complete game shutout territory.
Definitely could have potentially made that happen.
It would have been fun.
But again, you got bigger things at stake
here.
You're trying to make sure that the Grom
stays healthy for the stretch run.
Evan Carter going to go down swinging here
against Suarez lefty lefty matchup and Devin, not
on the right end of that one, not
on the right side of that one.
Let's see, catch out.
What's good.
Bullpen game for the A's tomorrow.
There you go.
There you go.
You know, I don't really get too excited,
too high or low about the pitching matchups,
because honestly, as I've said, like the past
two weeks, you just never know with this
team.
You really don't.
You have no clue if a bullpen game
is going to mean fortuitous offense or, you
know, Cy Young performance by the A's.
Who knows?
Your guess is as good as mine.
That being said, I do feel like tonight,
great building block.
We'll see what the A's employ tomorrow in
the bullpen game.
Logan O'Hoppe going to smash one down
the line and he is going to cruise
in the second base.
Good to see O'Hoppe driving the baseball.
It wasn't a crazy hard hit, but you
know what?
Ball in play, all that matters.
Hit it where they ain't.
And that's what O'Hoppe just did right
down the left field line.
And he's standing on second base.
Rangers trying to pile on more.
Cody Freeman up to bat right now.
Cody one for three with an RBI stolen
base as well.
Look, I tweeted this one out too during
the game.
By the way, if you only follow on
the podcast, if you only follow on TikTok
or on YouTube, please follow over on X,
follow over on Facebook.
I post throughout the game if you want
the in-game commentary as well as the
late game slash post game commentary.
Give a follow over there.
All the handles are at right on Rangers.
Lord Tubbington's beating me to the punch here.
If Chris Young actually was serious when he
said that the hot hand needs to play,
he was actually being asked about the catching
situation, right?
There's so many catchers.
You got O'Hoppe, you got Diaz, you
got Jansen.
And he basically said the hot hand is
going to play.
Now, I don't know why you would be
putting the catcher position in vacuum for a
statement like that.
I would assume that applies to a number
of different positions.
If you're letting the hot hand play, I
don't know how you don't have Cody Freeman
in the lineup every single day.
And no, we're not just saying this because
Cody is a fan of the show, a
friend of the show.
We are dead serious here.
I think a lot of you guys are
right there with me.
Cody Freeman needs to be in this lineup
every single day.
He does not have the splits that backup
just a straight up platoon matchup.
In fact, Cody was better against righties last
year than he was against lefties.
Crazy enough.
Cody needs to play every day.
He's got a good glove out there in
the field.
Is it the best that there ever was?
No.
Is the arm the best that there ever
was?
No.
But he plays solid defense and he has
got a way of just giving you quality
almost every single time he's up at the
plate and a right on cue here.
Cody is going to serve one into left
field, man.
I love it when that happens, man.
Just making me look good, baby.
Cody Freeman with a another RBI single here
and the Rangers extend the lead date.
Nothing.
Thank you.
Thank you, Cody.
Just making my point for me here on
the show.
Can we play this guy every day?
Play the hot hand, man.
It's not complicated.
Play the hot hand.
See why I said it, whatever it was.
1 0 5 3.
Play it, man.
Just love what Cody Freeman brings to this
team.
I feel similarly about Alejandro Osuna.
Not necessarily guys that are going to be
hitting 30 bombs, but they're just pesky and
they give you this boost in energy that
you really feel is lacking at times with
this team.
Definitely like what I'm seeing from the Rangers.
Bottom of the order over the last few
days here.
They have been getting some stuff done, getting
some work in and Cody Freeman leading the
charge in that department.
Cody, I like this, my guy.
What's good, man?
Good to see you.
Name is Cody.
The comment says gotta be cool.
Heck yeah, brother.
Frankie on TikTok says they better not demote
Cody when young comes back.
Darnell, you were kind of getting to that
as well.
I don't think they do that.
I really don't.
I feel like they're going to find some
way to keep Cody up.
I know that tomorrow is the big day,
September 1.
We talked about a number of scenarios.
I put out a video today on Walcott.
I think Walcott's a very unlikely add tomorrow.
Maybe they're just keeping everything close to the
chest, but I do feel like he is
a very unlikely add.
Although that'd be fun.
I said on the pod this morning, last
night, I wouldn't be mad at all if
they called up Sebastian Walcott.
I know there's some reasons to keep him
down in the major leagues.
A number of people have pointed out if
he's on the 40-man roster and there's
a strike, he can't participate in baseball activities.
He keeps them in the minors.
He's able to still do that.
I don't know how much you're really worrying
about that.
If we're being honest, I don't know how
much of a factor that really is in
the decision-making.
I think you got to operate in the
here and now.
If you really feel Walcott gives you an
opportunity to win games and go on a
run, I think you do it.
I don't think it's going to happen.
I think it's very unlikely.
Maybe likely later on in the month.
We know Evan Carter wasn't called up on
September 1st in 2023.
He was actually called up about a week
later after Adolis Garcia suffered an injury.
It is possible that Walcott could still be
a factor even if he is not called
up tomorrow.
I feel like it's most likely going to
be Osuna and Collyer.
Probably the lowest ceiling move, but at the
same time, I think it does give you
some much-needed depth, especially out in the
bullpen.
Zeke Durant up to bat right now.
1-0 count.
Here's the pitch.
Durant hits it hard right on the nose.
A center fielder going to track it down.
Cody has to stay put.
1-0-6 off the bat.
I mean, look, even when Zeke is getting
out, he's smoking the baseball.
Kenzie, appreciate the rose.
Thank you so much.
Not needed.
Much appreciated.
Omar, what's good?
Freeman is just not looking like he wants
to go back to AAA.
Comment says, hoping Carter gets benched.
Evan Carter, I do think if you were
wondering, what does Cody need to do to
stay up or how does Cody stay up?
I think you do have to consider Evan
Carter in his position right now.
He's hitting 192 with a 6.05 OPS.
I do think his days are numbered if
he is going to continue to do what
he's doing right now.
I mean, look at Evan's last 7, last
15.
We'll load up the numbers for you.
He's 2 for his last 17, Evan Carter
is.
He's 8 for his last 44.
He's 13 for his last 84.
All these numbers, by the way, if you're
not a math guy or gal, all these
numbers are below 185.
The average is bad.
The average is not great.
Evan has not been great with the bat
at all.
And so here we are, right?
We're at a point where you really have
some tough decisions to make this month when
some guys come back from injury.
Right now, by the way, 38, I believe
there are 38 guys on the 40 men,
if I'm not mistaken.
So you wouldn't really have to do any
kind of DFA to add guys that aren't
on the 40 men.
I believe there's two spots available.
I am not sure exactly what the Rangers
are going to do in that regard and
Eovaldi and Jung aren't on the 60 day.
That could get interesting.
Robert Garcia is probably going to take up
one of those spots, don't you figure?
By the way, if you didn't hear the
news, Robert Garcia is likely to go on
a rehab assignment this weekend.
We're getting our closer back, baby.
Robert Garcia, let's go.
Let's go.
Robert Garcia throwing, going to be heading on
a rehab assignment, Round Rock or Frisco, one
of the two.
Don't know if they've decided yet.
I'd imagine one of the two 40 man
spots is going to get spent on him.
He is on the 60 day.
That leaves you one remaining spot.
Could we have a Sebastian Walcott ad?
That could be interesting.
Could be interesting, man.
We will see what unfolds.
Right now, the Rangers are going to take
this one to the top of the ninth
and we are going to try and close
out an 8-0 ballgame here.
Yeah, I mean, let's just go through Evan
Carter and just talk about him real quick
here.
I mean, I think everyone who has followed
the show at all this year knows where
I stand on Evan and I'll give the
short version.
Good dude, 2023 legend, but has been not
great over the past several years, both with
the bat and really, I think the mental
side of things, hard to play that game,
but it just feels like Evan has not
quite been himself.
I know you can't quantify that, but it
just feels like there's some confidence lacking right
now.
I don't want to play psychologist too much,
but it just doesn't seem like he's going
up there with the same swag, with the
same level of certainty, the same conviction that
he did when he first came up in
the big leagues.
Appreciate the gift, by the way.
Thank you so much, Kenzie.
Yeah, I have to say, a rehab or
excuse me, a little stint, a little demotion
down in AAA wouldn't be the worst thing
for Evan.
It really wouldn't be.
Not sure what all the rules are.
I would have to go through and look
and make sure that we're crossing all the
T's, dotting all the I's in that department,
but Evan to me is definitely needing a
little bit of time away from the show.
He might have a nice hit here and
there.
I think you got to look at the
body of work.
Evan Carter is very much struggling this year
and you just really wonder what the long
term is going to look like for him.
I think the Rangers are going to have
to really do some soul searching this offseason.
What do you do with Evan Carter?
Do you start him out in the minors
regardless of how he does in the spring
and just allow him real time to figure
it out?
I don't know.
Like I said, without knowing the exact rules
about send downs, call ups, I'm not sure.
I think the move a while back should
have been to demote Carter and have someone
else up that at least maybe doesn't have
the same ceiling, but at least looks competent
and comfortable up there.
I mean, look, I love Evan.
I want to see him do well, but
it's just not working right now.
I do agree that Lopez is probably going
to go before Carter does.
I would imagine Nikki Lopez's days are numbered.
It's going to be interesting to see what
the role is for Evan.
I have been pretty firm the last month
or so.
I'm not sure there's going to be a
whole lot that is going to get Evan
Carter demoted, even an 0 for 50 and
I'm dead serious.
He's not in an 0 for 50, but
it is not great.
It's not great right now.
Dreiling and Walcott.
I talked about this on the pod this
morning.
Dreiling and Walcott getting the would be outstanding.
I would be really excited for that.
Like, you know, clearly you're not really thinking
super long-term with a move like that.
I think you're trying to get a little
spark injected.
I would not be mad at all.
If I got the notification Rangers promoting Walcott
and Dreiling to the show.
Why not Dylan Dreiling, by the way, if
you didn't know a 21 game hit streak,
not sure if he extended that tonight or
not 21 game hit streak and he's done
it all season.
He's done it all season.
Dylan Dreiling has been legit all year round.
And I think if you're just going for
a promotion of a guy that has proven
it over the course of 2026 Dreiling's, one
of those guys, I do think that, you
know, also you have a guy like Gavin
Collyer who has been really solid in triple
-a as well.
This year, although has had a few bumps
at the major league level, got to be
excited to see what they do.
I think it's going to be a little
boring.
I'm going to go with Collyer and Osuna
for the promotions tomorrow.
I think the Rangers will go a little
boring.
We'll see what they decide.
We will see what they decide.
Soldier.
What's good, man.
Yeah.
I know like Jamie Newberg put out an
article about Walcott and he made the same
point about, you know, the looming lockout.
I got to be honest.
It's really for me, I can't see that
being a crazy primary reason why they don't
do it.
If they really think that Walcott can help
right now, I think if you genuinely believe
Walcott can help you right now, and you
have a plan to actually play him, I
just don't know how you justify, oh, well,
he can't be around the team during the
lockout.
I mean, come on now, these guys have
access to the best of the best stuff.
I mean, Walcott, I know that he's not
making major league money, but I'm sure he
has plenty of access to what he needs
to stay sharp.
I'm not too concerned.
I don't think Walcott not getting to participate
in minor league activities is a reason why
you don't bring him up to the show.
If you really feel like he can help
the offense and you have a spot for
him, if you don't have a spot for
him and you're not going to play him
every day, you absolutely don't do it.
Brad, thank you so much for the gift,
man.
It's great to see you.
Go Rangers, brother.
If you're not going to play Walcott every
day, there's no way you call him up.
No way.
By the way, A's are going to break
the zero here and score a run eight
to one now.
Sacrifice fly.
We got one down here.
People's running into a little bit of trouble,
running into a little bit of an issue
here.
Hopefully he can lock this down, get a
couple more outs and call it a night.
Yeah, we'll definitely have an update for you
guys tomorrow.
We'll be locked in.
Hopefully they can knock out the announcement sooner
rather than later.
Who's getting called up.
Would love that.
Or maybe they'll just leave us in suspense
all day long.
One of the two, a couple of different
things.
Just recapping here a little bit, going over
some of the points, some of the big
takeaways from this game.
Sean, excuse me, People's, by the way, Ben
People's, he is in a one no count
pitch is a strike at the knees one
and one again, Rangers leading eight to one
in the ninth inning here to grow.
I mean, he answered the challenge today, didn't
he?
Three and two thirds last week, seven scoreless,
one hit.
He was every bit the ace that the
Rangers are paying for and expect out of
him during this time of the year.
Great to see DeGrom looking like himself.
DeGrom to me, it's just not been consistent
enough this year, but he gives you glimpses
like this, where you just feel like he's
unstoppable and you can do anything if you
just can get into October at DeGrom.
Unfortunately has been a little night and day
from start to start.
You just hope that he can catch dry,
catch fire here in the final month of
the year and into October, hopefully.
Offense today, we talked about it to begin
the show.
Love how the offense continued to apply the
pressure today.
You didn't just have the Rangers scoring a
run or two early and then never scoring
again, right?
They applied runs consistently across four consecutive innings,
just kept on stacking run after run.
It's a beautiful thing.
It's completely different offensive experience from what we're
used to as Rangers fans, where we're hoping
and praying for somebody to hit a big
fly and make a difference.
Peoples gonna get strike three call at the
knees.
That was painted.
Peoples one out away from getting the Rangers
back into the win column for the second
consecutive night.
Foscue, let's talk about him.
And I've been a little down on And
I can't say that the home run today
changes my view too much.
I think Foscue is 100% a better
hitter against lefties and righties.
I don't think there's any denying that he
has 10 homers this year, the most he's
ever hit.
He has been a useful hitter against lefties.
Not sure exactly what the numbers are in
the clutch, what the numbers are when it
really matters.
And there are stats of that effect.
By the way, roll over here and Peoples
gets the flip from burger.
Rangers win their second in a row.
Cue the I like Texas music.
Hello, win column.
The Rangers crawl within another game of 500.
They are now 68 and 70 on the
year two away.
And let's get it.
Let's get it, baby.
Rangers win eight to one with two games
remaining.
You've got Gore tomorrow.
You've got Bradford on Wednesday.
You've set yourself up pretty well to have
a shot at winning and sweeping a series
by winning this first game.
Not rocket science here, but, and the Rangers
really could use three games against this ace
team and make no mistake about it.
The Rangers are running out of time and
they need to start stacking wins against opponents
like this.
It's a good positive step going back to
Foscue.
Don't know what the numbers are with Justin
in the clutch when it matters.
Like for example, earlier today, Foscue had a
couple of runners on popped up, but I
think on the second pitch to end the
threat, you know, hit the solo Homer.
Obviously he gets huge, right?
We, we love any time we're putting runs
on the board this year.
They're, they're few and far between at times.
I don't think anyone's turning down a solo
shot.
Foscue to me again, I stand by not
an irreplaceable player, a guy who's playing nice.
Sure.
But I think you guys have heard me
talk long enough about the one trick ponies.
I'm just not interested in protecting one trick
ponies.
Foscue has got to be mashing at a
pretty elite clip for me.
Constantly making differences in ball games.
I don't feel that right now.
I know what the numbers say.
I'm fighting the numbers a little bit.
I understand.
Call me in denial, whatever you need to
do.
The eye test and the feel, I'm not
feeling it.
Just not feeling like he is a guy
that you have to have down the stretch
or you're not making the playoffs.
Don't don't know how you guys feel about
that.
Happy that Foscue did well tonight.
Surely not rooting against him, but I just
don't get the feel of him being this
clutch player that you just can't live without
at this moment in time.
Nice home run tonight.
100% going to appreciate any kind of
performance like that, but not sold yet.
Just not sold.
Hope that I can get proven massively wrong.
Eat a huge plate of crow, all the
works, but I need to see a little
bit more.
Not convinced.
Definitely at this point, love the fact that
the Rangers put up eight runs, man.
It's just not something you see all the
time.
Not something you see all the time.
Darnell, I think you and I have been
in lockstep on this a lot.
Foscue, look, good for him.
He was a first round pick.
He's had a little bit of an up
and down minor league career.
He's finally found a niche on the big
league club, but we've talked so much, y
'all.
I don't want to go ad nauseum here,
but we've talked so much about the Rangers
need, whether it's a soft rebuild, whether it
is a hard rebuild, a hard reset, Rangers
got to get more versatile.
They got to get younger and they got
to get more versatile.
Justin Foscue, not necessarily screaming versatility when you
think of him.
You pretty much play him against lefties and
you can only really play him at second
base.
And even then you don't really feel great
about it.
Don't really feel great.
I think that the Rangers and the players
that they have that are versatile rally around
them.
That's why I'm a Cody Freeman fan.
That's why I'm a Zeke Duran fan.
Those are the guys that they need to
be acquiring.
Would it be great if you got somebody
with some pop as well?
For sure.
Rangers just need to get versatile.
They need to get more athletic.
Those are the big things.
Ranger is 1572.
It's good.
If Foscue's helping, that's amazing.
But if he's struggling, I'd rather have him
getting reps in Frisco.
I mean, yeah, that or Round Rock, right?
I mean, look, Justin is having a nice
year.
There's no denying against lefties.
He is above average.
I'm not trying to deny what the numbers
are at all.
There's just some times and I don't feel
like this is always my analysis, but I
just go with feel and big moment in
October with multiple runners on base.
I'd like to think that Foscue was coming
through clutch, but I just don't feel that
right now.
I feel like, hey, pressure off, bad team.
Yeah, he might clean up a little bit
just like he did in the Rockies series
towards the beginning of this year, but I'm
just not feeling that stone cold killer when
the game's on the line type player.
That's me.
Now look, let's move on from Justin.
I don't want to pick on him.
We'll do like to nitpick a little bit
here on the show, but after a win,
you got to keep things positive.
Useful offense showed up tonight too, right?
Elias Diaz brought home the first run on
a ground out.
There's so many ways that you can score
a run and Elias Diaz just puts the
ball in play.
Beautiful things can happen when you put the
ball in play, man.
Cody Freeman followed up that Elias Diaz grounder
with an RBI single Nimmo added a sacrifice
fly burger RBI single Carter had an RBI
ground out.
Like you were scoring all sorts of ways
tonight.
That's the dream.
We talked about the brewers and their offense,
and we made the connection.
The Rangers at the beginning of 2026 really
wanted to be what the brewers currently are
a team that puts the ball in play,
forces the defense into mistakes and can just
score in a variety of ways.
And that's what you had with Texas tonight.
You had guys driving the gap and doubles.
You had guys driving the ball out of
the ballpark and you just had guys simply
putting the ball in play and not striking
out a ton.
The Rangers tonight, three strikeouts.
That's incredible.
Three strikeouts.
How many times have we seen like 13
tonight?
Three.
And is it any surprise that the Rangers
win a game where they only strike out
three times?
It's kind of sort of like, it might
maybe be a winning recipe.
Don't strike out double digits.
Things might go well for you.
And they went well for the Rangers tonight.
You look up and down the box score,
Nimmo, burger, Freeman, all multi-hit going to
be tough to nail down a player of
the game tonight.
But man, you know, Brandon Nimmo feels like
a guy who's up at the top of
the list.
Cody Freeman, although I'm a little biased, feels
like he might be up there at the
top of the list.
We might have to go code tonight.
Might have to a look as you go
to the scoring moments.
Uh, you had Diaz getting things going.
Cody Freeman made it to nothing.
Brandon Nimmo made it three.
Nothing.
We'll go Nimmo Freeman, co MVP, co offensive
MVP.
And then Jacob deGrom.
Is there, is there really any doubt here?
Jacob deGrom pitcher of the game, man.
Seven innings, one hit eight strikeouts.
Great stuff from him.
One base runner vintage deGrom, as they
like to say, it's a beautiful thing.
Uh, continuing on standard, I think remains you
got to win two out of three, three
out of three is absolutely more ideal.
A sweep would be huge.
The actual standard though, I think that you
have to have at the end of the
day, if they can win a series here,
you'll take it.
It doesn't spell doom.
If they don't sweep, you got to look
and see what's happening with the standings above.
But I do think you went two out
of three.
You're still sitting okay.
You'd love to get three out of three
though.
No doubt about it.
You'd love to get three out of three.
All right, quick pause.
I'll do more comments, questions.
Then I have some Rangers news to go
through with you.
And then we will land this thing and
start talking about tomorrow's matchup a little bit
as well.
Darnell, well said comment from YouTube.
Everybody kept the train moving tonight.
Totally agree.
I mean, again, this is what the Rangers
envisioned at the beginning of the year down
in Arizona, man.
They envisioned a team that didn't strike out
a lot that put the ball in play
frequently, didn't necessarily have to do it all
with home runs.
And that is exactly what you got tonight.
Exactly what you got tonight.
Yeah, look, and I agree with this comment
as well.
Comment from YouTube here, DeGrom can't get only
the A's lineup.
Should've did what he did.
I do agree with that.
I think you have to contextualize this a
little bit.
Look, the Rangers are absolutely, Rangers are absolutely
not facing the best team in baseball here.
There's no doubt about that.
Texas needs to be able to do this
against elite teams.
And so I do think you have to
contextualize tonight a bit.
This was against the A's, not the Rays.
We're going to have our opportunity against the
best team in the American league later this
week.
We'll see if Texas can figure out a
way.
They definitely held their own against Tampa Bay.
You felt like they kind of punted that
rubber match.
I think a lot of us were a
little hacked off at that, really felt like
Rangers could have beat the Rays in Tampa.
And so with the Rays coming here to
Arlington, I don't come into the series overly
confident, but I do come into the series
feeling like you played pretty well against Tampa
in their home stadium.
Now you've got the Rays coming to a
place where you've played well all year long.
I'm not saying that the Rangers absolutely win
the series, but I am saying, I feel
pretty good about the Rangers as Tampa Bay
prepares to come to Arlington for that four
game set for game set man, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday, Sunday, here we go.
This is going to be a big series.
You definitely, I think resisting the urge.
If you're a Rangers player to not overlook
this one, you have to just focus on
what's in front of you, but hard not
to think about this weekend as maybe the
make or break series of the 2026 season.
In fact, I'm not really sure how you
could see it any other way.
If you have a lose three of four,
you could be done.
So if you lose three out of four,
you could be toast.
You win three out of four.
Now you're in business.
It's going to be a big series this
weekend, really big series.
Thursday is we got Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all
night games.
Sunday is a day game for games against
the race.
Sookie I'm with you.
When I, when I saw for the comment
from YouTube, four games against the rays, that's
a lot.
Yeah.
I thought the same thing as I was
doing the weekly outlook on Rangers baseball, like
four games against the best team in the
American league, right after we had to play
the best team in the national league and
maybe the best team in baseball, no rest
for the weary, but at least the Rangers
are at home.
I think that's the positive you have to
take away.
If they were doing four games on the
road.
I mean, again, they played competitive down in
Tampa.
I didn't win the series, but easily could
have if the Rangers wouldn't have punted that
last game kind of overlooking.
I think that game a little bit for
the Houston series, which they failed miserably in
four games.
It's going to definitely tell you a lot
about the prospects of October for the Texas
Rangers.
I agree with this YouTube comment back end
of the schedule has been a little tough
with the brewers and the rays.
No doubt who's pitching September 5th to be
determined.
There is no starter announced, but if you
kind of do the math a little bit
it could be DeGrom.
I think DeGrom could be on September 5th.
You would have, let's see, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday.
So look DeGrom on four days rest would
be September 5th, man.
Dev, if you're going, you might get to
catch a DeGrom game.
That's what's up.
That is what's up.
I do think what you said has been
echoed a number of times and it's worth
echoing again.
My friend Cody Freeman comments says Cody Freeman
has been fantastic and should be playing every
day.
If CY is going to be a man
of his word when he went on, I
think one Oh five, three, the fan, I
think he has got to have Cody in
the lineup every day.
His words were basically the hot hand is
going to play.
If that is the mentality, if the hot
hand is really going to play, I don't
know how you rationalize benching Cody Freeman at
any moment, at any point, dude's got to
be in the lineup every day.
Deb, that's awesome, man.
Hope you enjoy having been to a game
since 2016.
Dang dude.
Crazy.
Hope they win for you, brother.
Whoever's on the mound.
Thanks for tuning into the show, man.
Appreciate all the comments.
Hey, what's good, brother?
Happy.
O'Hoppe is looking good.
Comment says, I hope he keeps improving.
We need a way better everyday catcher option.
O'Hoppe to me.
If you can get a really solid September
out of him, that's going to make you
feel so much better going into 2027.
I put out a reel on a hobby
a couple of weeks ago and playing him
down in the minor leagues, considering getting the
extra year of control, considering some of the
refinements that will hoppy needed to make totally
justified, totally reasonable.
You needed to get all hoppy up to
the major leagues though.
You needed that one month audition with Logan.
O'Hoppe.
You didn't want to go into the off
season wondering, uh, did the triple a stuff
that we had him do?
Is it, is it going to work or
is it not going to work?
You have him up at the big league
level right now.
You have an answer.
You're going to have an answer at the
end of September or maybe sometime in October.
Hopefully.
I definitely think a good month from all
hoppy would go a long way and at
least helping the Rangers going into the off
season with what they need to do at
the catcher position.
I'm not getting too excited.
I'm not, I'm not getting too excited by
any means.
I got to see a lot more consistency
before I start getting hyped on Logan.
O'Hoppe.
I would love for that to come true
though, because the Rangers need a longterm catcher,
man.
I am so tired of the carousel of
veteran catchers.
And you guys know, I love a Lee
SDS.
He's been great.
He technically is a part of that crew.
I'm just tired of, you know, patchwork, patchwork
in the catcher position.
It's getting old.
You know, you had Higgie, you have Jansen,
you're bringing in all of these one or
two year deal guys.
I'm just not here for it.
I'm ready for the Rangers to find that
guy, the future.
And so I hope O'Hoppe can become
that.
I'm not necessarily holding my breath.
Appreciate that Darnell appreciate the advice, not holding
my breath, brother, but I do hope that
it works out.
I really do.
I'd love for O'Hoppe to be a
solid catcher of the future.
Is he going to become, you know, Adley
Rutschman or Hunter Goodman?
Probably not, but could he be a tier
below that and be consistent?
I would love if that happened.
Would love if that happened.
Truly.
We keep going here.
We keep going some Rangers news for you
here.
Cole Winn and Peyton Gray both hit the
15 day IL today.
Robby Ahlstrom, Ben Peoples, both pitched tonight.
A recall from round rock injuries, win right
rotator cuff strain, gray, right elbow inflammation.
Now, not really surprised that either one of
these guys is dealing with injuries.
And look, I know there's always the talk
of, you know, phantom IL moves.
The reality is neither one of these guys
has pitched this much ever before in a
major league season.
They have not dealt with the workload that
they have dealt with this year.
And so it doesn't shock me that these
guys are dealing with some injuries, right?
Some aches, some pains.
It makes sense.
That reshuffle though, allows the Rangers to get
some fresh arms for tonight.
And these moves obviously being 15 day IL
moves do not themselves create 40 man openings.
We talked about Robert Garcia getting closer.
That is going to create a little bit
of a 40 man decision, but I do
believe the Rangers have a couple of spots
open.
So I think they should be able to
slide him back in to the roster pretty
easily without having to do a lot of
gutting out of other players that are on
the fringe.
By the way with Garcia, he threw live
BP August 30th.
So yesterday scheduled for another BP session on
September 2nd.
So that would be Wednesday and would begin
a rehab assignment afterwards.
So likely Thursday or Friday.
And then we'll see what role he fills.
I think they will probably try and get
him back in some bridge work, maybe some
setup work, maybe high leverage lefty in the
seventh or eighth inning.
I don't think they're going to have Robert
Garcia be mop up duty.
I know that might be much to the
chagrin of many of you, but I don't
see them making Robert Garcia mop up guy.
I can't say that I am loving the
prospect of him getting thrust back into any
type of leverage role, but I just think
it's what the Rangers are going to do.
It feels like it's what they've done all
year long with injuries.
Think about Chris Martin, right?
When Chris Martin came back, they were pretty
stubborn.
Like now we're, we're giving him some leverage
pretty immediately.
That's what we paid him to do.
I think they went into the season with
the mentality.
Robert Garcia was going to be the closer
in tandem with Chris Martin.
I think in an effort to be right,
they will probably put Robert Garcia back in
leverage, hate it or love it.
I think that's probably what is going to
end up happening.
Suki.
I don't think they're doing their DFA in
him, regardless of how correct or incorrect the
move may be.
I don't think it's happening.
I do not think it is happening right
now.
Uh, what are we doing with Montgomery again?
I think I'm going to, I'll look it
up y'all, but I thought that there
was only 38 spots right now.
So I think you have some wiggle room,
but I'm going to go to the active
roster and, and let's kind of count this
out and see what we got going on.
Rangers, uh, on the 40 men, you've got
Ahlstrom Alexander Bradford call your cornea.
Okay.
All right.
I think at this point it is at
38.
And then after that you would have one
more spot available.
So I don't even think you have to
ditch Jordan Montgomery.
I think they're planning on keeping him around.
I think that that would be the play
Robert Garcia.
The comment from Facebook here gives me the
same excitement as cold wind coming back.
Meh.
Yeah.
I think a lot of people are feeling
that way.
I think a lot of people are feeling
that way right now.
All right, let's land this thing a little
bit.
So here's a couple of things.
First of all, tonight told me DeGrom can
still answer an absolute disaster of a game,
which he had on what Tuesday night of
last week, he can answer a disaster with
an A's level performance just five days later.
I mean, DeGrom, it does feel like he's
got that switch and he was on tonight.
It was a beautiful thing to watch him
dealing one hit allowed no walks, eight strikeouts.
He was untouchable tonight.
Vintage DeGrom still unsure about whether this offense
can keep duplicating what they did tonight, which
is scoring in a variety of ways.
You hope they can.
You'd like to think they can.
How about keep Cody Freeman in the lineup?
Maybe figure out a way to get Alejandro
Osuna back in that lineup to give me
more and more pesky hitters that don't give
away a bees, please.
Next thing I am watching here is how
Mackenzie Gore and how Cody Bradford finish out
this series to grow and set the tone.
Now we see what Mackenzie Gore and what
Cody Bradford can follow that up with.
And speaking of let's talk about the game
tomorrow.
We've got Mackenzie Gore throwing against the A's
feels like he's thrown against the A's like
five times this year.
I would love to see the number.
It's definitely, I think time number four, maybe,
maybe it's only three.
I'll pull up Gore stats right now, by
the way, we're not going to have an
extensive preview for you because the A's have
not technically announced the starter yet.
And so there are no batter versus pitcher
stats game log for Gore though, this year,
let's check this out real quick.
Gore face the A's on April 14th and
April 25th.
He faced the A's again on August 15th.
So this is time number four against the
A's for Mackenzie Gore, four for Gore man.
And so against the A's, let's go to
his numbers.
Mackenzie Gore, he has had some ups and
downs.
Some games were dominant as I'm looking at
this game log and some games, the A's
touched him up a little bit.
But by and large, you look at what
he's done against some of the A's premier
hitters, Bolt three for three against Gore with
the Homer.
That was that game where he almost hit
for the cycle.
I believe, right?
Butler.
Oh, for four Gelof one for eight, Jonah
Heim two for five.
Hello.
Heim dog, man.
Hernaiz.
He is four for six with a Homer
McNeil got to look out for McNeil for
71 average in 17 a B's Muncie.
Oh, for six serving the catcher two for
four Stefanik.
Oh, for two white one for three and
Williams is three for five.
So a small sample size, but Mackenzie Gore
did get hit around a little bit, man.
He did get hit around a little bit
this year by the A's.
Let me give you those exact numbers.
Uh, so against the A's on the 14th,
four and two thirds, two earned runs against
the A's on April 25th, five innings, three
earned runs.
Meh.
Then you go to his third start five
and two thirds, three earned runs.
Mackenzie Gore coming off a pretty bad outing against
the White Sox, three and two thirds, four
earned runs for walks.
Like I said, this is a pretty big
thing I'm looking for.
How is Gore going to respond?
Both of those dudes deGrom and Gore
really soiled the bed in Chicago deGrom
right at the ship here.
He cleaned the sheets.
Is Gore going to follow up and do
the same thing?
Uh, excuse the crude humor.
Hope you don't mind, but I don't know
a better way to paint the picture for
you.
Uh, take the over tomorrow.
Darnell says YouTube comment here.
I mean, I definitely feel like it's a
tough call playing a globe life though.
Darnell, one of the worst, uh, the second
worst actually hitters park in baseball behind T
-Mobile in Seattle.
I always hesitate to take the over.
I don't bet very much baseball, more of
a football guy when it comes to betting,
just kind of like throwing stuff out on
the big games here and there.
But man, I, the over at globe life
is not a bet I would love to
take very often.
Oh, geez.
Wednesday go into White Sox, Astros.
Enjoy Frankie go White Sox.
Indeed.
The fighting bill went up.
Will Venables as I like to call him.
All right, y'all.
Hey, uh, look tomorrow.
Let's see.
We have a, what is it?
A seven o'clock start again, Texas time.
There we go.
Seven Oh five Texas time.
Start beautiful.
No starter announced.
I'll go to ESPN and see if I
can figure out anything.
ESPN sometimes has a little bit of a
better update on the starting pitchers.
We'll see what happens there.
Skip Schumaker, by the way, chatting right now
in the post game, always easier to do
these after a win, isn't it?
Uh, you've got ESPN listing Basso.
Interesting.
So Basso Owen one four 50 ERA Basso
is a lefty.
So it's going to be interesting.
Little chess match here.
Does skip start jock Peterson, knowing that they're
probably going to go to a righty at
some point.
Do you start jock Peterson?
Do you leave them on the bench?
It's going to be, I think a good
chess match for skip what to do in
this game with the A's employing a lefty
opener from Texas too.
How about that?
There you go.
Interesting stuff, man.
Hey, Darnell.
Thank you.
Appreciate the kind words, brother.
And thank you for hanging out.
Appreciate all the ways you support the show.
My guy scoreboard watch.
Let's do a little update.
We have got a few games that have
yet to go final.
So going around the AL west to start
Houston playing the White Sox right now.
Astros are leading six to three in the
bottom of the eighth.
So White Sox trying to keep it at
a three run deficit, and they will have
three more outs left to work with.
The Orioles are in a rain delay right
now with the Rockies.
It is a one, one ball game in
the top of the sixth.
That is another game that we're keeping our
eye on for sure.
The red socks.
I don't know if we really need to
care too much about their scores, although they
are playing the Mariners.
Red socks are technically ahead in the wild
card, but by a pretty good margin, a
healthy margin Mariners, they'll lose again.
Mariners dropped to 10 games under 500.
Mariners are not in a great way right
now.
You look at their last 10 games, they've
lost four in a row.
They are now four and six over their
last 10.
Just not great, man.
Not great.
Maybe did that go to five?
Actually, I'm updating right now.
Oh, it went to five in a row.
The Mariners have lost five in a row.
Sheesh five in a row for Seattle.
That is a brutal stretch at a very,
very pivotal time of the year.
Absolutely brutal stretch for Seattle.
I mean, look, Rangers fans will take it.
By the way, you've got Baltimore a half
game ahead of the Texas Rangers.
They are half game ahead of the blue
Jays as well.
The guardians, they are in the wild card
spot.
The last wild card spot lead the Orioles
by a game.
So it's really guardians, Orioles, blue Jays throw
in the twins as the wild card teams
that you're watching on a night-to-night
basis.
We'll see.
Maybe we can get some ninth inning magic
from the White Sox.
I would love it.
Absolutely love it.
It would be fun to gain a game
after a win like tonight.
Not looking great, but you never know what
can happen in baseball.
You absolutely never know.
Hey, look, I know we have mentioned the
Discord a couple of times here on the
show.
Appreciate all of you guys that are already
a part of that community.
Look, it's the one thing that we've monetized
here right on Rangers.
It's $2.99 a month.
If you don't know what Discord is, by
the way, it's basically a big group chat
of Rangers fans.
It's a really solid community of people.
We've been doing it over a year now,
and it's just a great place to talk
ball.
We talk Rangers baseball.
We talk really all DFW and Texas sports.
We got a lot of college football people
in the chat as well.
So it's going to be fun.
Would love for you to be a part
of it.
You can support in so many ways, just
showing up, hanging out, commenting, sharing the lives
with people, giving a gift.
Luis, appreciate you, man.
Not needed, but much appreciated, brother.
Thank you so much.
Look, there's so many ways that you can
give back, but if you want to support
the show in a little bit of an
extra way, think about becoming a member on
YouTube or becoming a subscriber on TikTok.
$2.99 a month will get you right
into the Discord, and we'd love to have
your voice in that chat, man.
It's a great community of people, seriously.
Well, tomorrow, we will have our podcast out
to you.
If you missed some of the show tonight,
you can definitely tune back into the pod.
We do pretty much all major podcasting apps,
Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio.
I'll also have my usual This Day in
Rangers history post out.
I'll have a real out to you guys,
and then, of course, we'll be doing the
same thing during the game, providing in-game
commentary, clips, highlights, and then, of course, doing
our live show around the seventh, eighth, ninth
inning, something like that.
So I hope you'll join us again.
We will be here all week long.
The Rangers do not have an off day
this week.
You got two more against the A's.
You got four against the Tampa Bay Rays.
It's going to be a great week of
baseball, and I sure hope you join us.
Hey, Luis, appreciate you so much, man.
Thank you for the gifts.
Thank you again to everybody for all the
ways you support the show.
I'm signing off for the night.
Hope you have a great rest of your
Monday, and as I always say to end
every show, God bless, and go Rangers.