What is the story about?
Giants
5, Rangers 1
- Well that was unpleasant.
- And there’s now a six game losing streak, which is especially unpleasant.
- Five errors allowed in the game.
- Five errors! Who does that?
- Well, the 2026 Texas Rangers, on trade deadline day, is the answer, it would appear.
- Cal Quantrill didn’t pitch badly. He pitched pretty well, in fact. He got a Quality Start.
- Quantrill gave up three runs, but only one was earned. That one was very earned, being a Jung Hoo Lee home run.
- Lee also homered off of Peyton Gray in the eighth. And he had a sacrifice fly off of Nolan Kingham, making his major league debut, in the ninth.
- But the two unearned runs came in the second, when the clown ball began, with Daniel Susac reaching on an E5 and then Brandon Nimmo turning a Drew Gilbert single into a triple (well, not technically a triple, it was a single and an E9, but you know what I mean), and then Osleivis Basabe hitting a sacrifice fly to score Gilbert.
- Hey, Osleivis Basabe! You remember him, right? He was part of the package sent to Tampa in the Nathaniel Lowe deal.
- He spent 31 games in the majors with the Rays in 2023, and has been in the minors since, until the Giants called him up last week.
- He’s got a 1274 OPS in five games for the Giants.
- Lowe was traded to the Guardians on deadline day, incidentally. He’s having a pretty good season as a platoon 1B/DH, slashing .286/.363/.522 against righthanders this season. He has all of two starts against lefty pitchers, and 25 plate appearances against lefties. He’s 2 for 24 against them with a walk. So yeah, best let him just face righthanders.
- You may be wondering why I’m dwelling on Osleivis Basabe and Nathaniel Lowe. The answer is, well, would you rather think about this game?
- The Rangers losing bums me out. Its less fun to write about the Rangers when they are playing badly than when they are playing well.
- The Rangers had all of seven hits on the day. That’s more than the Giants had, though. The Rangers also, as you probably guessed, had more errors than the Giants.
- I’m wondering if the Rangers have ever had a 1-7-5 box score line. Not enough to go dig around and spend the time to figure out the answer to the question, though.
- Over half of the Rangers hits were by Ezequiel Duran, who had an impressive 4 for 4 game, including a home run that kept the Rangers from being shut out.
- Having one player have more than half of your hits is generally not a good thing. For one, it means that your team probably didn’t have many hits, if one player who gets 4 or maybe 5 plate appearances in a game can have over half of them. For two, it means that you aren’t likely stringing hits together…it means your sequencing is off.
- At least the Astros lost.
- Cal Quantrill touched 95.1 mph with his sinker, averaging 93.5 mph, and hit 94.3 with his fastball, averaging 93.3 mph. Ben Peoples touched 96.9 mph with his fastball. Peyton Gray topped out at 92.6 mph with his fastball. Nolan Kingham’s fastball hit 96.6 mph.
- Ezequiel Duran’s home run was 110.2 mph. Evan Carter had a 104.3 mph groundout. Joc Pederson had a 101.1 mph single. Alejandro Osuna had a 1003. mph groundout. Corey Seager had a 100.2 mph groundout.
- Okay, let’s shake it off, hit re-set, start over. Bang the side a couple of times and see if that works.
