26-Year-Old Texas Rangers Pitcher Avoids Silly 2026 Injury Ending His Productive Day
The Texas Rangers faced off against the Pittsburgh Pirates in the second game of their three-game series in Arlington to kick off the nine-game Rangers home-stand. The Rangers had 26-year-old Jack Leiter starting on the mound, and he didn’t disappoint. The former ‘Vandy Boy’ was looking for a good, long start, as he hasn’t reached six innings in his last four appearances. His last start was in a 9-6 win against their division rival Athletics, where he threw a career-high 105 pitches over 5.2 innings, allowing seven hits and striking out three. This shows that he can go the distance based on his pitch counts, but long at-bats and a slight tendency to hand out free walks have kept him from going the distance.
In the April 22nd game against the Pirates, he was off to a roller coaster start, as the 26-year-old was able to strike out Oneil Cruz on a three-pitch strikeout, but later gave up a run in the top of the first inning with a single from Marcell Ozuna, scoring Bryan Reynolds. From there, the righty for the Rangers was at the top of his game. He finished the day with five innings pitched, with five hits, five strikeouts, three earned runs, and two walks. For anyone, that’s a pretty decent stateline, but it was the fifth inning that made things dicey for the young pitcher and his team. To start the fifth, Leiter allowed a hit to Spencer Horwitz, struck out Konnor Griffin and Cruz for his fourth and fifth strikeout, but the game of baseball can be flipped on its head in an instant, and that’s exactly what happened at Globe Life Field.
With two outs, Horwitz and Henry Davis on base via walk, the Rangers were looking to protect their lead, but Brandon Lowe singled a liner to left field, scoring Horwitz to tie the game 2-2. Then, Reynolds singled to right field. Brandon Nimmo throws the ball in to get Davis out at the plate, but throws it way off the plate, forcing Leiter to come off from backing up home, chasing it near the Pirates' dugout, and scoring two more runs, making the score 4-2. As the 26-year-old was chasing it, he stepped on some sort of batting device, or what Texas Rangers Broadcaster Dave Raymond said, “some sort of hot dog cannon”, twisting Leiter’s ankle and shaking him up. After a few seconds of wincing, he was able to get up on his own power, but very gingerly hobbled back to the mound with the training staff and manager Skip Schumaker. After a couple of warm-up throws, the former ‘Vandy Boy’ was able to get back to work, ending the fifth with a fly-out from Ozuna.
Injuries in the MLB are scary, especially to pitchers, as they’ve got the weight of thousands of fans and their team on their shoulders. With a pitcher as young and important to the Rangers as Leiter, it was a relief to see him get up and finish his day on a good note. It’s early in the season, but it’s important to keep the rotation as healthy as possible, especially with the continued struggles from Nathan Eovaldi and the occasional struggles from the relievers. It’ll be interesting to see what the Rangers do with the 26-year-old, if they decide to place him on the short-term injured list like teammate Wyatt Langford, or keep him in the regular rotation and just monitor the ankle and make sure it’s 100%. If he does end up continuing in the regular rotation, expect him to make his next start in the series against the Yankees starting next Monday.
