The Texas Rangers scored seven runs while the Cleveland Guardians scored three runs.
It is still baseball, after all. And even though tonight it was a Guardians team that couldn’t lose this month against a Rangers team that couldn’t win at all over the last couple of weeks, baseball makes its own plans.
Of course these Rangers would go over to Ohio and take the opener in a critical series in Cleveland’s quest to make the biggest divisional comeback in league history.
And it wasn’t even particularly
close.
If you were to watch just this game, you’d think it were Texas on the verge of something special instead of the wading through the deflating last ten days in a season that barely ever started to inflate to begin with.
In the first inning, the Rangers’ Z-tier lineup scored four runs on Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi. That included AJM’s fabled most momentum shifting play in baseball, a two-out, three-run home run by Alejandro Osuna — the second of his big league career — that was preceded by a Rowdy Tellez RBI double.
For a moment, it didn’t look like four runs would be quite enough as Cleveland bounced back in the bottom of the first with two runs of their own via a Kyle Manzardo two-run shot off a middle-square changeup delivered by Jack Leiter.
Leiter, however, settled in nicely and the scored remained 4-2 all the way until the late innings. Just when you were left to wonder if the Guardians would pounce on the Texas bullpen once Leiter ran out of pitches, the Rangers put together an extended rally that netted them three insurance runs on their way to a series-opening win.
The victory guarantees no worse than a .500 record for the Rangers this season and a bit more heartburn for Cleveland for the season’s remaining games this weekend.
Player of the Game: While Osuna’s first inning dinger was certainly the biggest single moment of the game, Leiter was the star in this one.
Finishing up his rookie season while making his 29th start of the year, Leiter dominated a team desperate for wins to continue their hopes of claiming the American League Central. In what was close to a playoff atmosphere on the road, Leiter tossed seven innings of two-run ball on four hits with only the first inning home run hiccup preventing a shutout performance.
Importantly, Leiter walked just one batter and struck out ten Guardian hitters, including striking out the side in his final frame of the season while finishing with his 148th strikeout of the year on his 101st and final pitch.
2025 won’t be a season to remember for Texas, but it was an excellent year of growth for Leiter who now appears set as a fixture in the rotation for years to come after ending the season with a 3.86 ERA and ten wins.
Up Next: The Rangers will attempt to secure a series win and winning record in 2025 with a pitcher to be named (maybe righty prospect Jose Corniell will get a look?) against LHP Joey Cantillo for Cleveland.
The Saturday evening first pitch from Progressive Field is scheduled for 6:15 pm CT and will be carried nationally on FOX.
