Rangers 6, Blue Jays 5
- Corey Seager is back!
- And the Rangers won!
- MacKenzie Gore threw six great innings for the Rangers, and one bad inning. Through four innings, Gore faced the minimum, allowing just one hit, a one out single in the first, which was erased by a GIDP.
- The fifth inning did not go well. A hard hit single and a not-hard-hit single started things off. Nathan “Cool Hand” Lukes drew an eight pitch walk to load the bases with no one out.
- Panic ensued. MacKenzie Gore was losing it. This is why the Padres and Nationals traded him. He was given a 6-0 lead and was now blowing it.
- A Davis Schneider sac fly brought one run in before Myles “Turkey In The” Straw doubled home two more runs.
- You never want Myles Straw doing damage against you.
- It was 6-3 then, things were spiraling out of control, the raggedy-ass bullpen was no doubt going to have to come in and pitch a bunch of innings, disaster was imminent.
- MacKenzie Gore defied your expectations, though. He retired the next two batters to get out of the inning, then the next six batters he faced, turning things over to the pen to start the eighth.
- In all, MacKenzie Gore allowed four hits and one walk in the game, but three of the hits and the lone walk came in a five batter stretch to start the fifth inning. Had he not clumped them together like that, he might have kept the Jays off the board, rather than getting dinged with three runs allowed.
- Gore is now sporting a 4.05 ERA, 3.93 xERA and 3.43 FIP on the year. He’s not taken the step forward that the Rangers were hoping for (and that the Nationals and Padres were waiting for before them), but he’s not been bad, either.
- So here’s something weird…Gore led the majors in wild pitches each of the past two seasons. He threw 14 wild pitches in 2024, and then 12 in 2025.
- This season? Nary a wild pitch thrown by Gore.
- Is this a condemnation of Keibert Ruiz? An indication of the excellence of Kyle Higashioka and Danny Jansen? Just one of those things?
- The Jackobs finished things out, with Jakob Junis throwing a perfect eighth and Jacob Latz allowing a two run bomb so that he could help the Rangers improve their record in one run games.
- Latz picked up his 15th save of the season, tying him with Aroldis Chapman for 5th in the American League.
- The bats decided that they were not wasting time with that small-ball nonsense, instead scoring the six runs in the game on a solo homer, a two run homer, and a three run homer.
- The solo shot was by Joc Pederson to lead off the game. He’s now slashing .248/.349/.467 on the season, and no doubt making those folks who clamored for the Rangers to release him this winter to reassess their priors.
- The two run homer was by Jake Burger, who is now slashing .255/.315/.451 on the season, with a team-leading 14 home runs. Pederson, believe it or not, is second on the team, with 12.
- The three run homer was by Wyatt Langford, who is now slashing .268/.315/.490 on the season. Since coming off the injured list, Langford is slashing .299/.357/.623.
- Corey Seager drew a pair of walks in his return, so that’s exciting.
- This isn’t an offensive machine or anything, but you feel a lot better about things with Seager and Langford back in the lineup.
- MacKenzie Gore topped out at 97.3 mph with his fastball, averaging 95.2 mph. Jakob Junis hit 96.8 mph with his fastball. Jacob Latz’s fastball maxed out at 96.8 mph.
- Brandon Nimmo had a 107.7 mph fly out. Joc Pederson had a 107.2 mph homer, a 104.6 mph single and a 100.6 mph groundout. Jake Burger had a 106.7 mph homer and a 101.0 mph single. Alejandro Osuna had a 106.6 mph groundout and a 100.8 mph single. Kyle Higashioka had a 105.3 mph single and a 103.0 mph single. Wyatt Langford had a 101.7 mph home run.
- Four down, six to go.
