Texas Rangers continue to thrive in close games, earn season’s first sweep

ARLINGTON, Texas — Bouncing back from an adverse moment or game is important in a long baseball season, not just in an individual sense, but as a team as well. For the Texas Rangers, who have been on a roll to start their 2025 campaign, how individual performers and the team as a whole respond to little bumps in the road will shape how the rest of the season might go. 

Following their worst game of the young year – a 14-3 beatdown to begin the week at Cincinnati in their first road game of the season – the Rangers have reeled off five wins in a row to move to 8-2. To make it eight wins in ten games, Texas did what they needed to do over the weekend to find a way to claim a victory each day over a dangerous Tampa Bay Rays team.

• Game 8: TB 2, TEX 5 (W: Mahle, 1-0, L: Littell, 0-2, SV: Jackson, 4)
• Game 9: TB 4, TEX 6 (W: Garcia, 1-0, L: Montgomery, 0-1, SV: Jackson 4)
• Game 10: TB 3, TEX 4 (W: Webb, 1-0, L: Uceta, 0-1)

Bouncing back was the name of the game for Tyler Mahle on Friday. Mahle might have only allowed one run in his season debut against Boston, but he racked up 61 pitches in only 1 ⅔ innings before being lifted. 

Mahle was far more efficient in the series opener against Tampa Bay, throwing more of his pitches for strikes this time around and keeping the Rays off the scoreboard. He allowed just one hit, as well, relying on his defense to get the job done behind him. 

With Mahle’s five scoreless innings and then Jacob deGrom pitching two more scoreless frames to begin his outing on Saturday, the Rangers’ starters put together a streak of 22 consecutive innings without allowing a run dating back to Kumar Rocker’s scoreless final frame on Monday.

As a team, the Rangers needed to bounce back from what was a rare less-than-stellar outing from deGrom. The righty allowed eight hits in his outing, and while he still got the Rangers into the sixth, he was charged for neglecting to hold onto the four-run lead that the Rangers’ offense gave him in the first inning. 

Even though Jacob Webb allowed the final inherited runner to score to tie the game, the rest of the bullpen was able to hold the Rays to just one hit the rest of the way, and Wyatt Langford cranked a late go-ahead homer to put Texas back on top for good. 

Winning games that deGrom starts is expected, but winning the ones games where the starter doesn’t get their expected results is the kind of difference-maker moment that can provide dividends down the road.

As important as Mahle’s bounce-back performance was, seeing a better performance from Kumar Rocker was just as critical. While he curiously didn’t have his swing-and-miss stuff, he ultimately didn’t need it to get good results in Texas’ win on Sunday. 

Rocker didn’t need to be a world beater, he just needed to be better than his last outing when he allowed three runs apiece in the first two innings in Monday’s blowout loss to put the Rangers in a deep hole that they couldn’t dig out of. On Sunday, however, he was collecting outs and tossing zeros. 

The combination of Rocker showing the poise to work through the Rays’ lineup without his best stuff, and with battery mate Jonah Heim helping to shepherd him, the rookie made it through five innings and allowed just one run. The former No. 3 overall pick only struck out one batter, but perhaps more importantly, he didn’t walk anyone. 

Rocker was able to move his pitches around, commanding them for strikes and with the life on his pitches to induce weak contact for outs. Pitching to contact won’t be how Rocker eventually settles in when he reaches his best version, but it did allow him to go deeper in a game than in any of his other big league outings during his brief big league career.

In lieu of sustained rallies, the Rangers are turning to thievery to produce chances to score. Whether Texas has been under the verbal influence of Joc Pederson, willing them all to take chances and run, or they are purposely trying to draw pitchers off their game by getting them to disengage, Texas has been creating run-scoring situations with their legs. 

While the Rangers are quite literally at the bottom of Major League Baseball in batting average at .192, they are adding an extra 90 feet to their opportunities. The Rangers, recently a team that seemed to shy away from gambling for extra bases via the steal during manager Bruce Bochy’s tenure, now lead the American League in stolen bases with 14. 

They also haven’t been caught. The running and aggression doesn’t just manifest itself in stolen bases; Josh Smith created the opportunity for Jonah Heim to walk-off the Rays in the final game of the series by turning a single into a double with some aggressive baserunning and then scored the winner on the follow-up single to center field.

Great pitching held the Rangers’s bats in check in Cincinnati and the Rays came to town boasting a pretty good pitching staff as well. But while Texas is at the bottom of the barrel in batting average, they are also tied for fourth in the league in home runs with 12. 

The run differential for Texas has them at one fewer than the opposition thus far this season, but the Rangers are finding different ways to win a game night after night. Whether it’s scrapping and clawing until the final single or having Langford drill an eventual game-winning home run in the late innings, the biggest point is this: The Rangers are getting it done so far, however they have to.

Bouncing back was the theme of this series. A couple of relievers recorded blown saves, but the Rangers were able to pick them up and record the wins. Even when the best pitcher in baseball had a rough outing, the Rangers were able to beat back a Rays’ comeback attempt and get the win. 

The two starters who had the roughest time in their first outings gave the Rangers a chance to win the second time through. Showcasing resiliency early in the season has the chance to set the tone for the rest of the year.

Do you think the Rangers will continue to enjoy late innings magic? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.