Texas

Rangers

Texas coughed up a 6-1 lead in the seventh but won the game on Wyatt Langford’s single in the bottom of the ninth. Foscue homered off Reid Detmers in the fourth and doubled in a run in the sixth. Both hits were off lefties, as is typical. He’s now hitting .367/.466/.796 in 49 at-bats against southpaws, compared to .216/.255/.353 in 51 at-bats versus righties. As a result, he’ll likely be on the bench Friday against Houston’s Hunter Brown.

Eovaldi had a 6-1 lead after six, but the seventh started with a catcher interference, a walk and a single, at which point Eovaldi exited. Peyton Grey came in and allowed all three runners to score while getting two outs. Tyler Alexander entered then and allowed both of Grey’s runners to score, making it a 6-6 game. Eovaldi still ends the first half on a four-game winning streak. He’s 9-7 with a 4.04 ERA overall. The 10 strikeouts were a season high. He fanned nine in each of his three previous starts.

Smith’s bat actually showed some signs of life this time around, but with Wyatt Langford (hamstring) returning from the injured list on Thursday, he gets squeezed off of the Rangers’ bench. He’ll return to an everyday role at the Triple-A level until he’s needed once more.

The dynamic 24-year-old outfielder rejoins the Rangers’ lineup for Thursday’s divisional matchup against the Angels. He’ll serve as the designated hitter and bat second against Halos’ left-hander Reid Detmers. The Rangers and fantasy managers are hopeful that he carries over his hot hitting from the few weeks before suffering a minor hamstring strain.

In one of the funniest moments of the first half, Higashioka pinch-hit for Joc Pederson in the eighth inning just before coming in to pitch the last inning of this blowout. He smacked an otherwise meaningless solo homer in an eventual 13-1 loss to the Angels, but that shot was met with raucous cheers by the multiple sections of shirtless men participating in the ‘tarps-off’ trend that’s sweeping the league. The Rangers also shot off fireworks to add to the hilarity of the moment. Then, he let up two innings in relief that featured a hit batsman and a double play. It’s useful to find senseless joy during the 162-game grind.

This was a classic outing from Gore. His stuff looked electric and he forced 14 swings-and-misses. Yet, he struggled to locate all of his pitches and way too many of them sat in the middle of the plate. In turn, the Angels blew him up. Gore’s fifth and final inning was especially disastrous with a double, walk, single, and three-run home run by Jo Adell before an out was recorded. It’s all sadly just more of the same for Gore who heads into the All-Star break with a 4.72 ERA, 111 strikeouts, and 40 walks over 101 innings.

Rangers manager Skip Schumaker told reporters Langford has checked all the boxes to return before next week’s All-Star break and will be activated if he’s cleared by team doctors. The 24-year-old was in the midst of a sizzling-hot stretch at the plate before winding up back on the injured list with a hamstring strain last week. It sounds like there’s a strong possibility he’s back in the Rangers lineup later this week.

Jung takes a seat for the third consecutive contest due to an ongoing right knee issue. It’s within the realm of possibility that he’ll require a trip to the injured list, but the Rangers are probably going to ride it out for the remainder of the week with the All-Star break on the horizon. It’ll be Ezequiel Duran filling in at the hot corner for the third straight game.

Montgomery allowed five hits and struck out three while not walking a single batter. He threw 26 of his 40 pitches for strikes and had a 32 percent whiff rate and 33 percent CSW. He sat 90.7 mph on his sinker, which is down a little over one mph from where we saw him in 2024 and down almost two mph from his great season in 2023. His breaking pitches are also all down in velocity, so this could simply be a veteran who is not letting it loose as he works his way back from a long absence. We should see something closer to full strength for Montgomery in his next few starts as he gets closer to a shot in the Rangers’ rotation. There’s a chance that he’s back by August.

Osuna drew a walk and scored a run in the second inning before coming through in a big spot for the Rangers. With two runners on and a two-run lead in the eighth, he extended the Texas lead with a three-run blast off Sam Bachman for his first home run of the season. The 23-year-old outfielder is hitting .252/.343/.296 with 20 runs scored and 18 RBI across 182 plate appearances.