What is the story about?
Rangers
7, Brewers 4
- Well will you look at that…the Rangers can win a game!
- On the road, even!
- And in a game where Kumar Rocker only went three innings!
- Kumar Rocker, man…
- Just four days ago, we marveled at the fact that Sean Burke threw 92 pitches against the Rangers in just three innings, and the White Sox still won the game.
- Rocker didn’t match the eight walks Burke issued in his three innings of work. He did match the three innings pitched and two runs allowed, however, while coming just short of Burke’s pitch total.
- Rocker needed 86 pitches to get through three innings.
- That’s not good. It is, in fact, bad.
- Rocker only faced 17 batters. That means he averaged over 5 pitches per batter.
- Its kind of remarkable he lasted that long. The Brewers’ first four batters all reached. 20 pitches into the game for Rocker, two runs were in, two runners were on base, and there were no outs in the inning.
- Rocker managed to retire nine of the next 13 batters he faced, seven on strikes. Three of the four batters he didn’t retire reached via the walk.
- By the time Rocker got the hook after the third, the Rangers had tied it up, so at least he wasn’t going to be tagged with a loss, whatever happened.
- I guess you know, though, that the Rangers didn’t lose, so he wouldn’t have gotten tagged with a loss anyway.
- Tyler Alexander — an unsung hero of your 2026 Texas Rangers — gave the team two innings of shutout work to get the team to the fifth inning. Adam Macko, Jordan Montgomery, Jakob Junis and Jacob Latz each contributed an inning apiece after that.
- I imagine the hope was that it was not going to be a save situation, with the Rangers getting seven runs on the board by the time Montgomery came in for the bottom of the seventh. A two out, two run homer by Gary Sanchez narrowed the lead, though, making it a little closer and less comfortable than we all would have liked.
- Still, it gave Jacob Latz the opportunity to pick up his first save in a week, in his first appearance for the Rangers in a week.
- Losing streaks are bad for getting your closer work. They are good for getting your closer lots of rest, though.
- The seven runs the Rangers scored are a reminder that sometimes the Rangers can hit the ball and it can find the dirt or the grass, and they can run like the wind down to first, and sometimes even second or third, without making an out.
- And eventually they can even come all the way home and score a run.
- This is actually the third time in the last six games that the Rangers have scored at least seven runs, so maybe my sarcasm isn’t necessarily warranted.
- The dynamic duo of Elias Diaz and Ezequiel Duran got the Rangers on the board, and then the lead, with Diaz hitting a two out ground rule double right after Cody Freeman had put up a two run double of his own in the top of the second, and then Duran homering in the third to tie the score.
- Duran added a ground rule double of his own in the fifth to bring home Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford, who had walked to start the inning and then advanced on a Brandon Nimmo groundout.
- Joc Pederson homered in the sixth for some necessary (it turned out) insurance, and then a sequence of singles and an error brought two more insurance runs that weren’t necessary, but which are fun nonetheless.
- Pederson had a chance to blow it open in the seventh, with the bases loaded and two outs. He could have homered again, giving the Rangers 11 runs, tying their season high.
- It would have been great had he done that.
- Pederson didn’t, however.
- I guess its okay, though. The Rangers won anyway.
- Rangers wins…they are so emotionally uplifting, aren’t they?
- Kumar Rocker touched 95.8 with both his fastball and his sinker, averaging 94.2 mph with each pitch. Tyler Alexander maxed out at 94.2 mph with his fastball. Adam Macko’s fastball topped out at 95.8 mph. Jordan Montgomery’s sinker reached 92.7 mph. Jakob Junis hit 92.9 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz’s fastball topped out at 97.3 mph.
- Brandon Nimmo had a 105.7 mph single. Corey Seager had a 104.7 mph single and a 104.7 mph groundout. Evan Carter had a 103.9 mph groundout and a 101.9 mph fly out. Ezequiel Duran had a 103.3 mph double. Joc Pederson had a 100.8 mph home run.
- A return to the cozy confines of the Shed, and hopefully a return to winning more often than losing for a while.
