Rangers 6, Cubs 0
- Isn’t it nice when the team plays well?
- When the Rangers win comfortably, and don’t embarrass themselves?
- The Cubs, you have to think, are mad at themselves after this. 0 for 13 with runners in scoring position, 11 runners left on base. That has to hurt.
- Of course, the Cubs were just 4 for 19 without runners in scoring position. Its not like they were rapping out a bunch of hits with no one on base.
- Jack Leiter kept the Cubs off the board in his 4.2 innings, but it was a struggle. Out of 97 pitches, 43 were balls, including 17 of 35 fastballs he threw. Not being able to throw your fastball consistently for strikes is going to make for a long evening for a pitcher.
- Or a short evening.
- Leiter had multiple runners on base in each of the first three innings. The third inning traffic jam wasn’t entirely his fault, as, after a leadoff Michael Conforto walk, he induced what appeared to be a double play ball from Alex Bregman. A Josh Jung error, though, meant that instead of two outs and the bases empty there were no outs and runners on the corners. Leiter struck out Ian Happ and Seiya Suzuki, walked Michael Busch to load the bases, then got Carson Kelly to hit a harmless fly ball to get out of the inning.
- Leiter needed 29 pitches in the inning, though, putting him at 70 pitches through three innings, which meant it was going to be a relatively short night for him. Had he been able to retire one more batter, he would have been in line for the win, but a full count walk to Suzuki with two outs in the fifth meant no W for Jack.
- I hate to read too much into a specific outing or trying to get into players’ heads, but this does seem like the type of game where Leiter would have come unraveled in the past, would have had a disaster inning and put the Rangers in a hole. Is it unreasonable to see this as an instance of growth?
- Its a cliche that quality pitchers learn to have success — or at least to not have disasters — when they don’t have their A game on the mound.
- Texas got 13 outs from the combo of Jalen Beeks, Cole Winn and Gavin Collyer, with Collyer pitching the final two innings of the game.
- Collyer is now at 11 appearances and 9.2 innings in his major league career without giving up a run. Interestingly, he’s not blowing batters away — his 21.1% K rate is slightly below the major league average, and his 10.5% walk rate is a tad about 25% higher than the major league average. But he’s allowed just four hits so far, by virtue of hitters not being able to square him up thusfar — his 17.4% hard hit rate is, to borrow one of Chris Woodward’s favorite words, elite.
- The result is that, despite a 3.65 FIP, Collyer’s xERA is just 2.48. Its a very small sample size, of course, but Collyer’s performance has to make you encouraged so far, especially given he’s one of the few pitchers in the Rangers pen with velocity.
- Shoutout to Justin Foscue, who got the start at first base in place of the struggling Jake Burger, who is getting a couple of days off for a re-set. Foscue picked up his first major league home run in the fifth inning, making it a 5-0 game.
- Foscue’s struggles in the bigs have been well documented, so it has to feel good for him to have gotten to trot around the bases in a major league stadium for the first time.
- The first four batters in the Rangers’ lineup went 0 for 11 with a walk. The rest of the lineup went 9 for 19 with three walks.
- The Josh Jung Renaissance continues, with Jung giving the Rangers the lead in the second inning with a leadoff homer, ultimately going 3 for 4 on the day, raising his slash line to .319/.372/.519 on the season.
- Jung was 0 for 17 in the month of March. Since April 1, he’s slashed .364/.420/.593 — and perhaps most impressively, has struck out just 16 times in 131 plate appearances in that stretch, against 10 walks.
- Josh Jung has never had a K rate below 25% in a season in the majors. So far in 2026, he’s got a 15.5% K rate.
- Joc Pederson continues to show signs of life, with a single, a double and a walk.
- Alejandro Osuna had a pair of hits, with his plate appearance in the second inning being especially impressive. With Evan Carter and Joc Pederson on the corners, Osuna battled Cabrera, ultimately working the count full and, in the seventh pitch of the at bat, flaring a ball the other way for an RBI single to make it a 2-0 game.
- Jack Leiter hit 98.2 mph with his fastball, averaging 96.9 mph. Jalen Beeks reached 94.2 mph with his fastball. Cole Winn’s fastball touched 95.7 mph. Gavin Collyer maxed out at 99.4 mph with his fastball.
- Ezequiel Duran had a 109.0 mph ground out. Justin Foscue’s homer was 106.2 mph. Alejandro Osuna had a 104.5 mph ground out and a 104.2 mph single. Kyle Higashioka had a 104.3 mph single. Josh Jung had a 103.0 mph single and a 101.8 mph homer. Evan Carter had a 102.5 mph groundout.
- Let’s win Sunday, win the series, and start a winning streak.
