Tigers Tame the Anemic Texas Rangers Offense to Even Early 2026 Season Series
The Texas Rangers took on the Detroit Tigers in Game Two of three Saturday night at Comerica Park in Detroit. The Rangers, sitting at 16-16 on the season, look to start a win streak against the sputtering Tigers, sitting at 16-17, after taking Game One of the series on May 1st in a tight 5-4 game. Starting on the mound today for the Rangers was right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker, who was looking to bounce back after taking a tough loss in his last outing, where he pitched six innings but gave up six hits and two earned runs. The former first-round pick for the Rangers was sitting at 1-2 on the season, with an ERA of 3.98. On the opposing side, the Tigers had Keider Montero start on the mound and looked to get them a quality start to even the series. Montero, starting for the injured Justin Verlander, had a 1-2 record as well and a season ERA of four. Even though both pitchers were having rollercoaster starts to the season, the Tigers were able to take down the Rangers 5-1, giving Rocker the loss and Montero a well-deserved win.
In a brisk afternoon at Comerica Park, Montero got to work and pitched a quick one-two-three inning on Evan Carter, Corey Seager, and Josh Jung. Montero’s command looked to be strong in nine pitches, but something to note is that the flyouts to Carter and Seager were hard-hit, with Seager’s out being somewhat of a “robbed” hit as it took Kerry Carpenter to the wall. For Rocker, it was the complete opposite. Hard-hit balls were the theme of the inning, as Dillon Dingler hit a meatball of an 82 MPH curveball 108 MPH to left field, sending it 443 feet, making the score 3-0. The only highlight for the Rangers in the bottom of the first was a beautiful throw from utility man Ezequiel Duran to get an out at home, throwing out the chugging Gleyber Torres.
The top of the second inning wasn't much to talk about for the Rangers either, as Joc Pederson popped up to third, Jake Burger grounded out softly to shortstop, and Alejandro Osuna struck out swinging. Montero was off to an efficient start to the game, throwing 20 pitches, 16 of which were strikes. The bottom of the second was inefficient again, as he started the inning with an out but left a breaking ball up in the zone to Wenceel Perez, who put it in center field for a single. Later in the inning, Kevin McGonigle hit a ground ball that squeezed just between Josh Smith and Seager, and allowed Perez to gallop slowly home, extending the lead 4-0. Torres got his get-back, as he hit a floater of a single in front of Duran in right field, scoring McGonigle to make the game 5-0. Rocker at this point allowed six hits, alongside five earned runs in 43 pitches. The top of the third started with a walk from Montero to Duran for a rare runner on base for the Rangers. Smith popped up to Riley Greene for the first out of the inning, but Jansen fought to also get on base for Montero’s second walk of the inning. With a chance of redemption in the box, Carter got a hold of a changeup, but popped up for an infield-fly rule out for the second out of the inning. Regardless of having two men on base, Seager wasn’t able to get a hit in play and flew out to center to end the inning. It was the most work Montero had to put out in the game, but he still put up a goose egg for the Rangers on the scoreboard.
To begin the bottom of the third inning, Rangers manager, Skip Schumaker, had seen enough and pulled Rocker for Cal Quantrill. The 26-year-old’s final stat line of the game was two innings pitched, six hits, five earned runs, two strikeouts, and allowed one home run. Quantrill made quick work of the Tigers as he struck out Greene and Carpenter, and had Dingler ground out softly to third base. In the top of the fourth, the Rangers looked flat and boring at this point, and just not in this game, until Burger suddenly made his appearance felt. With Jung grounding out and Pederson caught frozen on a strikeout, Burger got a hold of an up-and-away sinker and sent it 102 MPH to left field to put the Rangers on the board, making the score 5-1. The bottom of the fourth was a struggle for Quantrill, as the 31-year-old walked Perez and allowed a hit to Jace Jung, but was able to get out of it with a flyout to Hao-Yu Lee. The struggle won’t show on the scoreboard, but it showed on the stat card as Quantrill got up to 40 pitches in just two innings. It shows that the Tigers’ batters are getting ahead of the Rangers’ pitchers and are going to make Schumaker dig deep into the bullpen.
The top of the fifth was a strong start for the Rangers as both utility men, Duran and Smith, singled to begin the inning, forcing Montero into a tough spot as the top of the batting order was going to be up. Yet, Danny Jansen didn’t make things easier as he grounded into a double play to get the first two outs, and Carter later popped up to end the inning. The bottom of the fifth was another long one, as the right-handed reliever's pitch count eclipsed 50, up to 56. He let some runners get on base, but great defense from the Rangers got them out of the inning, keeping the game somewhat in reach at 5-1. The offense for the Rangers has been anemic, as the only highlight for them was that Jung was able to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. Montero is having an amazing day on the mound for the Tigers as he’s only thrown 73 pitches and allowed four hits with one earned run to this point, setting up his bullpen to be efficient and really do whatever they want. To begin the bottom of the sixth, Schumaker called Quantrill’s number and pulled him from the game. He had a long, yet short, but good outing in relief for Rocker, as in three innings, he threw 56 pitches, allowed only two hits, and struck out two. Subbing in for Quantrill was Peyton Gray, the 30-year-old rookie, looking to continue his great performances for the Rangers. Gray started off the bottom half of the inning with a pair of strikeouts to Spencer Torkelson and Perez, but had a 12-pitch battle with Jung, leading to a walk. Alas, Gray was able to get out of the inning due to a McGonigle pop-up to third, but not before the rookie threw 24 pitches.
In the top of the seventh, due to a single to right, Montero was pulled after an amazing performance on the mound for the Tigers. His final stat line was 6.2 innings pitched, five hits, one run, two strikeouts, and 85 pitches. In relief, Drew Anderson was thrown on the mound and went to work against Jansen, and struck him out on six pitches. The bottom of the seventh was a bit of a teeth-clencher for Gray as he allowed two hits from Colt Keith and Dingler, but was able to escape without the Tigers doing more damage on the scoreboard. Anderson went back out on the mound for the Tigers in the top of the eighth, but had some immediate pressure put on him as Seager singled to right field and Jung doubled sharply to left field, but the offense was yet again hung to dry as Burger struck out looking on three pitches. The bottom of the eighth started with Gavin Collyer on the mound in relief for Gray and immediately got to work. He allowed a single to Perez, but struck out McGonigle to end the inning right after a long foul ball that left Tiger’s fans in disbelief because they thought it was foul.
For the ninth inning, there was absolutely no fight from the Rangers, as Osuna grounded out to shortstop for the first out, Duran lined out to center field for the second out, and Smith popped up to third base for the final out of the game, leaving the Tigers with a well-deserved victory, 5-1. Overall, it was a defensive battle after the scoring party was over for the Tigers when they ran Rocker off the mound. The Rangers, statistically, have one of the better bullpens in Major League Baseball, and they did not disappoint. Despite no help from the batter's box, the Rangers' relievers kept them in the game, leaving them with goose eggs on the scoreboard from the end of the second inning through the rest of the game. The Rangers had chances to get on the scoreboard, but pop-ups and groundouts led to them only getting one run on the board, courtesy of Burger on a solo shot in the fourth inning. The Rangers will look to get the offense going tomorrow as Jack Leiter is the probable starting pitcher for the Rangers, and it's yet to be decided what the Tigers will do on the mound. All in all, it was a great game for the Tigers and a bitter, annoying game for the Rangers as they sit at 16-17, and the Tigers are back to .500, sitting at 17-17.
