What is the story about?
Rangers
7, D-Backs 4
- And back in the win column are our Texas Rangers.
- With a bunch of runs scored, which is nice.
- On the heels of a bullpen game, the Rangers…I hesitate to say “needed” length from MacKenzie Gore in his start, given that there were probably only two relievers who were unavailable. But they definitely wanted to get a lot of innings out of Gore, to avoid further taxing the bullpen.
- One December, when my daughter, Rowan, was in kindergarten, I asked my wife what she wanted for Christmas.
- She said, “For Christmas, I want Rowan to pick up her room, because it makes me sad and mad that her room is always so messy.”
- Rowan piped up and said, “You can’t get that for Christmas, mommy, because that’s a service, not a good, and Santa brings goods for Christmas, not services. Also, its a want, not a need, because you want me to pick up my room, but I don’t need to do it.”
- Whether it twas a want or a need, Gore came through for the Rangers in spades, logging eight innings, allowing just one run, giving up three hits and one walk, striking out five.
- Gore’s inconsistency when it comes to throwing strikes has been something we’ve talked about a fair amount, but that was not an issue on Tuesday. Of Gore’s 95 pitches, 63 were for strikes.
- Gore wasn’t missing bats, either. He had just 8 swings and misses, total.
- Ironically, given that the broadcast was discussing his D-Back counterpart Zac “Ten” Gallen’s ridiculously low whiff rate on the fastball this season, Gore got zero whiffs on the 26 fastballs he threw.
- Whether this was a deliberate strategy Gore was utilizing, throwing more strikes in order to try to be as efficient as possible in order to work deeper into the game, or just serendipity, it worked. The D-Backs did have some hard hit balls off of him — most notably Ildemaro Vargas’s second inning home run — but Arizona balls in play tended to find gloves.
- What was a blowout turned into, well, not a blowout in the ninth.
- Gavin Collyer was summoned to pitch the ninth on what was Collyer’s 25th birthday, and it was not a birthday he will want to remember.
- Collyer walked Corbin Carroll on five pitches, walked someone named Tim Tawa on four pitches, then walked Nolan Arenado on five pitches, with a wild pitch mixed into the Arenado plate appearance. With the bases loaded, Vargas singled to make it a 7-2 game, at that was the end of Collyer’s outing. Jacob Latz replaced Collyer and retired all three batters he faced, though a run scored on the first out, a fielder’s choice, and the second out, a sac fly, giving us the ultimate 7-4 result.
- Gavin Collyer has, prior to 2026, had a walk problem. Doing a better job of throwing strikes is what had him in the mix in spring training, and is what earned him a callup when the Rangers needed a bullpen arm. He has now hit or walked 10 of the 42 batters he has faced in the majors.
- The three runs he got dinged for are the first runs he’s allowed in his major league career. That said, Collyer is going to have to tighten things up. Walking three straight batters in the ninth inning with a big lead is going to kick you out of a manager’s tree of trust faster than just about anything.
- Collyer has pitched in 12 major league games. He has walked the first batter he faced in three of those 12 games, and hit the first batter he faced twice. That’s also not something that is going to make a manager real comfortable.
- Offensively, the Rangers rebounded well after being shut out on Monday. Skip Schumaker shook things up, putting Joc Pederson in the leadoff spot, and Pederson responded with a homer on the second pitch Gallen threw.
- With Pederson, Brandon Nimmo and Corey Seager in the top three spots, the Rangers had three lefties in a row, but that alignment does work better, I think, than having Pederson and Evan Carter back-to-back, as Schumaker had been doing. A lefty brought into the game, particularly in the middle innings, to face Pederson and Carter either results in two guys who can’t hit lefties facing a lefty, or else Schumaker pinch hitting for one or both of them, which weakens the lineup overall, particularly if/when those spots come back around later in the game against a righthanded reliever. If lefty is brought in to face Pederson, Nimmo and Seager, though, Pederson likely gets pinch hit for, Nimmo has minimal platoon splits, and Corey Seager is Corey Seager. It doesn’t mean that the opponent won’t go with a lefty in that situation, but the impact is lessened.
- Jake Burger, mired in a bad slump, had three singles and a walk, and while none of the singles were exactly stung, he made contact and got on base, and I’ll take that.
- Ezequiel Duran had one of the most fortunate home runs you’ll see, going the opposite way with a pop fly that was just 92.4 mph off the bat, and that barely made it over the wall down the line in right field. Per Statcast, the xBA on that ball was .060.
- But we’ll take it.
- The Rangers chased Gallen in the fifth. A Nimmo one out triple was followed by a slow Seager roller, with the D-Backs unsuccessfully trying to get Nimmo at the plate. A Josh Jung single, an Evan Carter 4-3, and an Ezequiel Duran infield single (that I think probably should have been an E6) made it 5-1 and had Torey Lovullo go to the pen. Alejandro Osuna and Jake Burger singles made it 7-1, and the rout was on, at least until the ninth.
- Osuna ended up stealing third that inning on a delayed steal, where the third baseman was far enough off the bag that he was able to get his secondary lead and then, after the pitch was thrown, just keep going to third. It didn’t end up mattering, as Kyle Higashioka struck out for the final out, but it was the kind of heads-up play that makes you appreciate what Osuna brings.
- The dark cloud to the offensive outburst is that Brandon Nimmo, who had three hits, turned his ankle on an infield single in the sixth. He initially stayed in the game but was ultimately pulled for pinch runner Sam Haggerty. The Rangers say he is day-to-day, though I’m guessing he sits in the series finale on Wednesday, giving him, with Thursday’s off day, two days to rest the ankle.
- MacKenzie Gore topped out at 96.7 mph with his fastball, averaging 94.8 mph. Gavin Collyer’s fastball touched 98.0 mph. Jacob Latz hit 95.7 mph with his fastball.
- Joc Pederson’s leadoff homer was 109.1 mph off the bat. Brandon Nimmo had a 108.3 mph triple and a 107.1 mph single.
- Now let’s win the rubber game, in what will be my first game at the Shed in 2026.
