What is the story about?
Rangers
8, Orioles 5
- And the Rangers have now won two road series to start the season.
- Jacob deGrom made his belated season debut, and for the first four innings and change, things went smoothly. Seven Ks, no walks, three hits, the one run being a solo homer by Pete Alonso to lead off the fourth.
- I keep having to remind myself, oh yeah, Pete Alonso plays for Baltimore now.
- A blame deGrom’s undoing with two outs in the fifth on Mike Bascik. Bascik said that deGrom’s pitch count and success was such that he should be able to go six innings in this, his maiden start of the season. DeGrom then gave up a single to Blaze Alexander, an infield single to Taylor Ward, and then a hard hit double to the gap by Gunnar Henderson, which tied the game at three and chased deGrom from the game.
- So a bit of a letdown at the end, but still. 79 pitches, 14 whiffs, including 10 on the slider.
- I will note that deGrom, who had a below average hard hit rate in 2025, continued that trend in his 2026 debut. When the O’s made contact, they hit it hard — the lowest exit velocity deGrom allowed was on the Ward infield single in the fifth, at 90.4 mph, and his average exit velocity allowed was 97.8 mph.
- Cole Winn finished off the fifth with a strikeout, and ended up earning his first major league victory, going 1.1 shutout innings. Jakob Junis and Robert Garcia each threw a scoreless inning after Winn, before Chris Martin made the ninth inning a little scarier than it needed to be, allowing a pair of runs before retiring Henderson.
- Fortunately, the bats were clicking. Orioles starter Zach Eflin left the game with two outs in the fourth due to elbow issues, and he had allowed just a single run, on an Ezequiel Duran home run — Duran’s first since September of 2024 — but the bats had still generated a couple of rallies against Eflin aside from the Duran prior to Eflin’s departure, even if they came to naught.
- Once Eflin left the game, however, the bats went to town on the O’s relievers. Former Ranger farmhand Grant Wolfram, who inherited a two on, two out situation in the fifth but got out of it, got teed off on to start the fifth, with the Rangers putting up a pair on a Brandon Nimmo single, a Wyatt Langford triple, and a Corey Seager single.
- Langford had not gotten off to a great start, coming into the game with 2 singles and 0 walks in 19 plate appearances. So its good to see him with a two hit game on Tuesday.
- Langford also now is tied for the league lead in triples, with one.
- Nimmo gave the Rangers the lead in the sixth with a two out single, and Danny Jansen broke it open with a two out, two run homer in the top of the seventh, a tremendously momentum shifting play, of course.
- Corey Seager finished off the scoring with a homer off of Anthony Nunez to start the ninth, giving the Rangers a bit more of a cushion, and making Chris Martin’s sweaty ninth a little less stress-inducing than it might otherwise have been.
- Everybody got a hit except for Joc Pederson, though Joc did draw a walk, though he is 0 for 8 to start the season. Who gets a hit first, Joc or Josh Jung (who got the day off and is currently rocking an 0 for 17 streak), will be an exciting subplot to follow.
- The Rangers, as a team, have a .259/.319/.438 slash line on the year, good for a 121 OPS+ and 121 wRC+. The pitching staff has a 3.00 ERA, good for a 153 ERA+.
- This may be a controversial take, but I like it when the hitting is good and the pitching is also good.
- Jacob deGrom topped out at 99.2 mph with his fastball, averaging 97.6 mph. Cole Winn hit 94.0 mph with his fastball. Jakob Junis reached 93.6 mph with his fastball. Robert Garcia’s fastball topped out at 96.6 mph. Chris Martin’s fastball maxed out at 95.5 mph.
- Wyatt Langford had a 107.5 mph fielder’s choice, a 106.8 mph single, and a 106.5 mph triple. Corey Seager had a 107.5 mph single and a 101.7 mph home run. Danny Jansen had a 107.3 mph single and a 104.1 mph home run. Josh Smith had a 105.3 mph single and a 102.8 mph fly out. Ezequiel Duran had a 104.7 mph home run, a 101.0 mph fielder’s choice, and a 100.0 mph ground out. Evan Carter had a 104.5 mph double. Brandon Nimmo had a 103.6 mph fly out.
- Now let’s finish off the sweep.
