What is the story about?
Rangers
10, Guardians 0
- That’s the way a day game before an off day should go.
- Six shutout innings from a future Hall of Famer, then a shutout inning apiece from some relievers you generally don’t use in crunch time.
- If the Rangers weren’t up by a bunch, if there wasn’t an off day on Monday, would deGrom have gone longer? I tend to think so. He was just at 87 pitches, and had struck out the side in the sixth, coming one pitch away from an immaculate inning.
- But the Rangers had a big lead, there were guys in the pen available ahead of a day of rest, so the extra inning from deGrom is saved for another day.
- Jaocb deGrom is currently sporting a 3.18 ERA, which is 10th in the American League. His 5.60 K/BB rate is better than his career 5.38 K/BB rate, which is the best in MLB history.
- He got his strikeout total to 1935. He’s seven behind the Bonham Bullet, Danny Darwin, and is gaining ground on Aaron Nola, who is still active but who is not having the best of seasons.
- Could deGrom be the Rangers’ All Star rep for the second year in a row? Its possible. There are guys with better numbers this year, but he is Jacob deGrom, and that carries weight.
- Four homers for the Rangers, who teed off on a lefty in uncharacteristic fashion. After being shut out in embarrassing fashion on Saturday, the Rangers jumped on Cleveland early to make sure we knew that there wouldn’t be a repeat.
- Justin Foscue, who had been mired in a 2 for 22 slump, hit a rocket into the left field stands for a two run homer in the first inning, thumbing his nose at those asking what the hell he was doing hitting in the cleanup spot.
- Foscue’s homer measured 417 feet, per Statcast. There have now been 18 balls in play hit at least 417 feet this season at the Shed. 12 of those 18 have occurred since the start of the Houston series.
- Josh Jung’s solo homer in the third looked, to me, like it was going to be caught on the warning track…but it kept carrying, and carrying, and carrying…
- The Jung homer had a 100.4 mph exit velocity and a 30 degree launch angle. Because of my curiosity about how the ball has been carrying at the Shed of late, I searched Statcast for balls hit at the Shed since the start of 2025 that were between 100 and 101 mph and had a 30 degree launch angle.
- It had happened two other times by a Ranger since the start of 2025. Both of those other times were by Josh Jung.
- Weird, huh?
- Wyatt Langford homered, which is fun, because he’s back and had been slumping. Michael Helman even got into the action and homered, on a ball that looked like it didn’t have the distance initially, and then looked like it would be caught by Angel Martinez, who leapt in the air at the fence, got his glove on it, but had it carom off.
- Josh Smith is returning to action soon, and someone is going to have to go when that happens. Helman is out here making his case not to be the one to be sent down.
- Every Ranger got a hit except for Joc Pederson, who made the rare start against a lefty because Corey Seager got the day off. Ezequiel Duran continued his strong play, going four for five with a double.
- Is it possible that, when Josh Smith is activated, he gets optioned back to AAA? If Ezequiel Duran is the every day second baseman, are the Rangers better off with Smith playing every day in AAA and Nicky Lopez functioning as the backup infielder, rather than Smith on the bench in the majors?
- Probably moot, because someone will get hit between now and then.
- These wins feel good. I like them, and want some more of them.
- Jacob deGrom’s fastball topped out at 97.5 mph. Peyton Gray hit 92.5 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander reached 92.1 mph with his fastball. Luis Curvelo’s sinker touched 93.6 mph.
- Wyatt Langford’s homer was 111.3 mph off the bat. Justin Foscue’s home run was 106.4 mph. Josh Jung’s homer was 100.4 mph. Joc Pederson had a 100.4 mph fly out.
- Let’s luxuriate all day Monday on the positive vibes from a win.
