What is the story about?
Rangers
8, Phillies 3
- Way to go, Rangers!
- Texas took 2 of 3 in Philadelphia. This is important for a few reasons.
- First, 2026 is the first time the Rangers and Phillies have faced off in the regular season and one team has not swept the other since 2014.
- Um, wait, 2014 is bad. Hmmmm…
- It is the first time the Rangers have won a series in Philadelphia since 2022.
- Okay, 2022 was also bad.
- Prior to yesterday, the Rangers had only won three games ever in Philadelphia — a two game sweep in 2022, and one game in 2011.
- Hey, 2011 was good!
- But also, 2011 was kind of bad.
- But more good.
- Okay, let’s move on.
- MacKenzie Gore was as advertised. He looked great at times, and missed bats, striking out seven and generating 15 whiffs on 90 pitches. He also got wild at times, walking three batters and hitting Alec Bohm with the bases loaded in his final pitch of the game.
- Gore gave up one well struck ball, a Kyle Schwarber line drive in the first that was snagged. Every other ball in play was either weakly hit or hit at an angle that made it not threatening.
- The Phillies didn’t get their first hit until the sixth inning, after being no hit by Jacob Latz for 4-plus innings the day before. That has to have Phillies fans feeling great.
- The Phillies got two hits off of Gore in the sixth, one a swinging bunt by Justin Crawford that there was no play on, and one a flare to center by Schwarber after Trea Turner had walked. That loaded the bases for Bryce Harper, who Gore struck out swinging, and you were thinking hey, maybe Gore can get out of this, give the Rangers six full innings.
- He then hit Bohm with an 0-1 fastball that, as indicated above, brought his day to a close.
- Cole Winn, asked to come in after a sterling effort by a lefty starter for the second day in a row, gave up a smoked sac fly off the bat of Adolis Garcia on the ninth pitch of the at bat before retiring Bryson Stott on a 1-0 comebacker to end the inning.
- After Texas regained those two runs in the top of the seventh to make it an 8-2 game, Rule 5 pick Carter Baumler was asked to get some outs. Baumler was the only reliever not to pitch on Saturday (unless you count Kumar Rocker, who was available in the pen as a long man), and thus was the one rested guy Skip Schumaker could turn to. Baumler walked the first two batters he faced before striking out Crawford and getting Trea Turner to hit into a GIDP.
- Baumler issued two more walks in the eighth, sandwiched between a Kyle Schwarber fly out and an Adolis Garcia swinging K. A line drive run scoring Bryson Stott single then ended Baumler’s day, with Schumaker turning to Chris Martin to get out of the inning. Martin allowed a 2-0 line drive off the bat off J.T. Realmuto, but it was caught for the third out, easing Rangers’ fans troubled minds.
- Every Ranger fan’s favorite reliever Robert Garcia pitched the ninth. After striking out Brandon Marsh he issued a five pitch walk, but ended things by going up 0-2 on Trea Turner before inducing him to hit into another GIDP, this time of the game-winning variety.
- I will note that there has to be some concern in regards to Carter Baumler. The stuff is legit. The command, through his first two major league games, has not been. Only 22 of the 43 pitches he threw on Sunday were strikes, and he struggled badly to locate his breaking ball. He has faced 15 batters so far in the majors, and has walked five of them while hitting another. He’s going to have to show much better command if the Rangers are going to be able to keep him on the roster all season.
- On the offensive side, things went well. Sam Haggerty, getting the start in place of Evan Carter against the lefty, singled with one out in the third, meaning that when Brandon Nimmo homered two batters later, it was a two run bomb instead of a solo shot. Just an inning later, a Corey Seager walk and a Jake Burger single preceded an Andrew McCutchen home run right down the line in left field, giving the Rangers a 5-0 lead and resulting in booing from the Philly fans.
- McCutchen scored the next run as well, smoking a two out double and then coming in to score on Kyle Higashioka’s single. The final two runs in the seventh were from an Evan Carter leadoff walk followed by an Ezequiel Duran double. After a Brandon Nimmo HBP and a Wyatt Langford fielder’s choice, Seager brought Duran home with a sac fly that Nimmo made scarier than it needed to be by advancing to second and just barely beating the throw.
- Carter and Nimmo tried to get some more of that action going in the ninth, with Carter working a seven pitch walk off of lefty Kyle Backhus and Nimmo picking up a one out single, but Langford and Seager decided to save some runs for Camden Yards instead.
- MacKenzie Gore’s fastball maxed out at 97.3 mph. Cole Winn’s fastest pitch was a 94.6 mph fastball. The fastest pitches for both Gore and Winn were against Adolis Garcia, which is interesting. Or maybe not. Carter Baumler topped out at 96.2 mph. The fastest of Chris Martin’s three pitches was his 94.4 mph fastball. Robert Garcia reached 94.5 mph with his fastball.
- Corey Seager had a 106.7 mph line out. Andrew McCutchen’s homer was 105.7 mph. Josh Jung had a 104.0 mph ground out. Brandon Nimmo’s homer was 103.7 mph. Wyatt Langford had a 100.8 mph fielder’s choice.
- Now to Baltimore, where Texas will be hoping Jack Leiter can give them a lot of innings on Monday.
