Rangers 16, Twins 4
Rangers 16, Twins 4
- The Texas Rangers offense is trying to suck me back in, I see.
- A lot of stuff happened in this game.
- Like, too much to completely thought up.
- Tyler Mahle wasn’t his sharpest, but thankfully, he saved a not his sharpest for a day when the Rangers scored a whole crapton of runs.
- Four runs allowed by Mahle — four! — in 5.2 IP. Just three Ks. 10 hits allowed, and it could have been more than that, and with more damage, as Evan Carter had a couple of diving catches in center, and Adolis Garcia played a ball off the wall quite well to gun down a runner heading for second.
- Mahle’s fastball wasn’t at its most effective on Tuesday. He threw it 38 times, resulting in 16 swings and 7 called strikes. Of the 16 swings, four were fouls and 12 were balls in play, with the 12 BIPs having an average exit velocity of 94.3 mph. No swings and misses on his fastball. Less than ideal.
- Mahle has been pitching over his head generally so far this season, and he’s now had back-to-back outings where he was pulled in the middle of the sixth and allowed four runs. His ERA has gone from 1.64 to 2.34 as a result of those two games.
- But 2.34 is perfectly fine and we aren’t going to complain about that.
- The B-team relievers finished things out without problem. Notably, Cole Winn threw another shutout inning, despite walking a batter, and has gone eight major league innings and 23.1 minor league innings in 2025 without allowing an earned run.
- Really, though, the story of the game was the banging that the bats did.
- 16 runs! That’s the most runs the Rangers have scored in a game in over two years, since June 3, 2023.
- And everybody was mashing! Every starter had at least two hits except for Marcus Semien, who had a hit, a walk and a shouldve-been single robbed of him on a diving catch, and Jake Burger, who had just one hit, but who mashed a bunch of hard hit balls and who had a line drive that ate up Byron Buxton in center field to start the Rangers’ rally in the third inning.
- Corey Seager broke an 0-for-20-something streak that was the longest of his career, if I remember right, which I might not, and went 2 for 3 with two walks, which is a positive, given that he had been in an 0-for-20-something streak that was the longest of his career, if I remember right, which I might not.
- Seager also looked super gimpy on the basepaths. He almost got thrown out going from first to third on a two out Evan Carter single in the fifth that appeared to be a play where he would get to third easily, and then didn’t attempt to score on a wild pitch that saw Carter go to second, and which one would have expected any runner on third to score.
- He’s managing his hamstrings, which is fine, but man…
- Evan Carter had his second homer in as many nights as part of a 3 for 5 with a walk night. Slumpin’ Wyatt Langford homered.
- Per Statcast, the xBA for the Rangers in the game was .434, which I think is the highest for Texas in any game this season. Texas wasn’t getting lucky or having bloops fall in, as you’ll see when you get down to the exit velocities. They were banging.
- That said, I’m not going to get over my skis here. The Rangers have done this before. They’ve scored a bunch of runs, and I’ve gotten all positive and somewhat confident and think, hey, the bats are getting back to where they should be, and then they get shut out on two hits the next time out and score two runs the game after that and my emotions are crushed.
- You aren’t sucking me in that easily this time, Rangers offense! 16 runs and 17 hits isn’t going to make me forget what has gone on before!
- The Rangers offense should just call me Missouri, because they’re going to have to Show Me.
- Tyler Mahle hit 95.0 mph with his fastball, averaging 92.8 mph. Shawn Armstrong touched 94.8 mph with his fastball. Cole Winn reached 96.1 mph with his fastball. Caleb Boushley’s sinker topped out at 92.8 mph.
- Jake Burger had a 112.7 mph ball where he reached on an error by Byron Buxton, a 107.8 mph line out, a 106.7 mph ground out, and a 101.9 mph line out. Corey Seager had a 111.1 mph single and a 110.6 mph line out. Evan Carter had a 106.9 mph single and a 101.9 mph home run. Josh Smith had a 106.6 mph single and a 100.9 mph ground out. Wyatt Langford had a 105.5 mph home run. Adolis Garcia had a 105.4 mph double and a 101.4 mph fly out. Marcus Semien had a 103.8 mph line out and a 100.3 mph single. Kyle Higashioka had a 103.6 mph single. Josh Jung had a 102.0 mph double.
- Momentum, it needs to continue on Wednesday.