The Texas Rangers scored eight runs while the Atlanta Braves scored one run.
Wyatt Langford is a good young player having a decent season where we’ve seen him make improvements in his second year, especially on defense.
Even so, there has been a tinge of disappointment with Langford in 2025 after he turned around his rookie campaign to finish as the AL’s Player of the Month in September. Just as he was hyped ahead of his first season last year, the expectations were immense for Langford this year.
Instead of ascending fully formed as a franchise anchor in the middle of the lineup, Langford has been merely solid. A winning piece, yes, but not exactly ready to take the crown of team’s best player from Corey Seager.
I personally have no doubts that Langford will reach his ceiling but there is still quite a bit of room for him to get there, especially at the plate. Coming into today’s game, Langford was sitting at an OPS of .718 while on pace for another 3.0 WAR season, equal his rookie season. A decent portion of his value has come from his play in the outfield, where he was expected to be much more of a butcher than he has become. Now he’s an asset out there.
Today, Langford made all three putouts in the top of the first inning and then in the bottom of the inning, he saved a bases loaded situation from being squandered by emptying them with a two-out bags-clearing double to put Texas up 3-0 and allow them to eventually coast to victory.
The plays in left are becoming more and more common place. Langford delivering at the dish more frequently is where he can go from good player to hype-realizing presence in the lineup. I’ll enjoy watching him get there.
Meanwhile, Jack Leiter, another player wading through high expectations, had what we’ll hopefully come to know as the Jack Leiter standard of outings. He wasn’t very hittable, wasn’t very efficient, but he was very effective.
The second of the fabled Vandy boys in as many days, Leiter went six innings and allowed the Braves’ only run on two hits and three walks with seven strikeouts and a hefty dose of swings and misses.
Leiter will have his issues with walks and high pitch counts that comes with his profile but if he’s hard to hit, it’s hard to do damage even when he puts some traffic on the bases. Tossing exactly 100 pitches today, Leiter earned his seventh win of the season as his ERA starts to creep closer to dropping below 4 at 4.09 on the season.
The Rangers won a game and finished off a superlative homestand that appears to have turned their season around thanks in part to a couple of graduated top prospects who have taken their lumps transitioning to the big leagues but have all the ability in the world to be a major part of Texas’ turnaround.
That’s the kind of stuff you live for when baseball gets its clutches on your soul.
Player of the Game: The thing that impressed me most about Langford today was not that he doubled to crack open the game, it’s that he doubled after putting together a sensational at-bat.
Following a patented awful strike call to open the at-bat, where a Bryce Elder sinker missed by dang near a foot outside and low only to be called a strike, Langford swung and missed at a slider. However, in an 0-2 hole half of his making, Langford spit on a couple of offerings in the same location as the second pitch before cranking a 2-2 fastball into the left-center gap to unload the bases.
Langford has been a victim of expanding his zone following human element miscues, but this time, he waited until Elder put a pitch in the zone and drove it to produce a momentum-shifting moment in a win. Overall, Langford went 2-for-3 with the three-RBI double and a walk.
Josh Smith deserves acknowledgement as well for his 3-for-4 afternoon with his ninth homer of the year and two runs scored out of the leadoff spot.
Up Next: The Rangers catch a flight out west to begin their first road trip of the second half. The first leg will see them in Anaheim with RHP Jacob deGrom set to make the start opposite a pitcher to be named for the Angels.
The Monday evening first pitch from the Big A is scheduled for 8:38 pm CT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.
