Texas Rangers’ offense thrives in Evan Carter’s return as Seattle Mariners claim Leody Taveras

Texas Rangers’ offense thrives in Evan Carter’s return as Seattle Mariners claim Leody Taveras

On today’s show, we’re talking about Evan Carter’s first day back in the big leagues. Did one day with a new hitting coach fix this offense? And the Ottover has a new home, and of course, it’s on another AOS team. All that and more on this locked on Rangers. Let’s get into it. You are Locked On Rangers, your daily Texas Rangers podcast, part of the Locked On podcast network. Your team every day. You are Locked onto the Texas Rangers, the first and best daily Rangers podcast. I’m Bryce Patrick, a crippling addicted Texas Ranger fan, covering this team for 12 seasons, including all seven as the founder and host of this podcast. Thank you all so much for making Lock the Rangers your first listen every single day. If you’re not already, you can follow me on Twitter at Brycepatrick. You can follow the show at Lockdown Rangers. Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube with the best way you can help grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below. Now, on today’s show, we’re talking about this offense looking fixed finally one day into Brett Boone’s tenure. We’re talking about Evan Carter coming back to the big leagues and immediately getting a hit off of a lefty. And we are also talking about a farewell officially to Leodyver. But let’s start with the first things first. The best things first. The Rangers won again. They now have two wins in a row to win today. Oh boy, that’s a winning streak. Rangers are finally back to 500 after a pretty thorough drubbing of the Red Sox. Not an absolute obliteration, not a a 15 run outburst, but six runs. That’ll do. That That will absolutely do with Nathan Evaldi on the hill. Especially this offense is just it’s humming right now. These last couple of games, the Rangers have done what they hadn’t been able to do all season long. They strung together big innings. They got two out rallies. They got two strike hits. They they hit in clutch situations. The Rangers were 5 for13 with runners in scoring position. They only had a couple of extra base hits and both of them were were back to back. A double by Cory Seager and an absolute obliteration double over the fence or over the wall. Both of these guys um their doubles were ground rule of the ground rule variety. But Jock Peterson two for three with an RBI a run scored on the day. Two balls hit over 105 miles an hour. This this this is Jock Peterson. This is the man that we were promised. Although he did go two for three, did have a strikeout on a bunt. Um I I I zoned out on on that at bat. I was I was busy doing something else. I didn’t see why he was bunting three straight times and got uh three foul bunts and struck out on a foul bunt. I know it was against lefty. I don’t don’t love the choice there. Maybe that’s why the Rangers decided to pinch hit for him with lefties the rest of the way. Blinkrim went 0 for two. Still does not have his first big league hit yet. I’m hoping I’m very hopeful that Blinkrim will be able to get that first big league hit before he gets sent back to the miners. He hasn’t been making an impact with the bat, which was the whole reason the Rangers called him up. But hey, if this offense is fixed, then it’s pretty darn deep. There’s not all that much room for Blaine Crim, especially with leadoff hitter, first baseman Joshua H. Pooky, Gold Glove, soon silver slugger already soon all-star. This is the got to be the year that Josh Smith is an all-star Smith. That is the one. That is his full god-given name. May maybe not. Uh maybe it’s it’s fan-given name. But following up his careerhigh four hit game, he follows it up with a three hit game. Also reached base a fourth time with a walk three singles for the leadoff man. The leadoff spot is really really agreeing with them hitting 330 so far on the year. The OPS is has dipped down a little bit cuz you know even though the Rangers were able to drop 16 hits, only two of them were for extra bases. They still have barely homerred in the last week and a half. But I will take the runs. I will take the situational hitting. I I will take some line drives that uh could be elevated a little bit more for for some extra base hits in in the gap, but you take the hits that you can get. You will take the runs that you can get because this offense has been in dire need of some kind of spark. But this this is pretty close to the ideal lineup. The only one who didn’t who started in this game and didn’t get at least at least one hit uh was Josh Young in the nine hole went 0 for four with a couple of strikeouts. this one despite despite five and a third innings from all lefties who Josh Young normally crushes maybe a little concerned for Josh having a a rough week or so his OPS has now dipped below 700 I’m not all that worried there’s a lot more to worry about with this lineup um so far but I mean multihit days from the the middle chunk of this lineup multi-hit day for Jock Peterson a multihit day for Marcus Simeon who’s been hitting very very well and hitting timely hits in the five hole, including a really, really good piece of hitting with Jock Peterson on second base. And he is an extreme pole hitter and him being able to use a little bit more of the opposite field, especially in those clutch situations, that situational hitting. You know, get the runner over with no outs in the inning and you got a runner at second base, get them over to third with fewer than two outs and let someone just pop a ball into the outfield and score an extra run. This Rangers offense just needs to score runs. They just need to score runs any single way. They need to have more team at bats. They need to have just better quality at bats. And they need to look more comfortable in the box. And you know, one game in to to the tenure of new hitting coach Brent Boon. Brett Boone. It it looks better. The situational hitting looked better. I mean, from four to the eight spot in the lineup, everybody had a multi-hit day. Even though Jock Peterson was pulled after three at bats, he still had a multi-hit day. Adulles Garcia a three hit day where he also walked. We got Evan Carter a multihit day, including a hit off of a lefty, which he said after the game, it was just a solid knock, just a bloop single, a two out or two strike hit into center field. He said, “Hey, I’m looking forward to the day where I just get a hit off lefty.” And everyone’s like, “Oh, he just got a hit and it’s not that big a deal.” Well, we’re not there yet, Evan. We are working towards it. Every single hit against a lefty is another step in that direction. And another multi-hit game from Jonah. His average is all the way up to 284. and he has just been a solid situational hitter. Getting back to being a really good hitter with runners in scoring position, which he was in 2023. I mean, the reason that Jonah was such a big part of the Rangers offense in 2023, is because go back and look at his stats, his split stats from 2023, how incredibly well he did with runners in scoring position. I mean, he was hitting like Pudge Rodriguez with runners in scoring position. and you put the bases loaded. I mean, oh my goodness, he was absolutely incredible in those situations. And last year, I mean, in clutch situations, clutch is a little bit, it’s hard to define, and it’s not always consistent. And some guys just always have it, some guys don’t. I mean, Cory Seager very much has it. Garcia very much has that clutch gene. Jonah has a little bit of it. Um, we didn’t see it all that much last year. We just didn’t see much offensively from Jonah last I think he was just so worn down from that 2023 season. He’s looking resurgent this year. I’m really looking forward to Kylo Gashoka getting back so you can you can spell Jonah a little bit more so that by the end of the season having two catchers that’s a 1A 1B type situation keeping those guys fresh for the entire season. I think that will be much better in the long term. Jonah has been traditionally significantly better in the first half before the All-Star break than he is down the stretch. He has had some really, really rough second halfs in the past couple years. Heck, even go back and look at 2023, he was a a phenomenal he was he deserved every bit of that all-star nod, that all-star start in 2023. But down the stretch, he was a little rough after that after that all-star break and especially when he came back a little bit early from that thumb injury. He looked really, really rough for, you know, a two, three week stretch and then kind of figured it out enough in the postseason, but still didn’t hit all that much. Having him back as a clutch situational hitter is great for this lineup. Adding adding Evan Carter back who you know will work more than his fair share of walks. Going and looking at his baseball Savant Page after uh literally one game, it made me smile from ear to ear. Um because again, he doesn’t qualify for league leaders in anything. But you go and you look, what’s the one thing that you know about Evan Carter? Everybody knows about Evan Carter. He does not chase. This man knows the strike zone better than anybody. Better than anybody. And you look at his chase rate one game back in the big leagues. 0%. He did not chase a single pitch out of the strike zone. And heck, one of the one out that he hit into was him just absolutely blasting a change up. Not quite a hard hit ball that that you look at his bat speed, it’s still down there. He was launching the ang the ball at the correct angles. He was hitting almost all of those baseballs at the sweet spot of, you know, between like 18ish and 33°, which is, you know, usually where most of the extra base hits are. That’s what Evan Carter does when he’s at his best. He’s not hitting the ball incredibly hard. He doesn’t he’s never really had elite elite bat speed. What he does is he forces pitchers to throw him pitches that he can handle and then he handles them. And if you don’t throw him pitches that he can handle. If you don’t throw him strikes, he’ll walk. He loves walking. He is fantastic at it. He also struck out a couple times because that’ll happen sometimes, especially against lefties, but he will work a quality at bat. He had some great reads in center field. We’ll talk a little bit more about this defense. And uh the guy who he’s replacing in center field has a new home. Leo Diverus is a member of the Mariners. We’re going to talk about why that takes me off just a little bit, but it could have been even worse right after this. This show is brought to you by Wonderful Pistachios. Looking for a snack that’s both delicious and nutritious? Crack into a good source of protein with Wonderful Pistachios. Wonderful Pistachios are one of the highest protein nuts. 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Hopefully yet another great outing for this Rangers offense. Game two in the Brett Boone era. And maybe I’ll be talking about Leota Tver’s first game as a member of the Seattle Mariners. That’s right. Not much after I recorded yesterday’s show talking about Leo Diverus being placed on Wavers. Evan Carter coming back up. I thought, okay, maybe he’ll clear waiverss. The Rangers tried to trade Leo Diver and nobody offered anything, which honestly feels a little surprising. He’s due $3 and a4 million. And I keep seeing so many points about how, oh, the Rangers save so much money. It’s $3 million. It’s not that much, especially for an everyday player who, when he’s right, is a competent championship caliber starting player. That is proven. That is a proven fact. You cannot argue that he was the everyday starter in center field on a team that won a championship. That makes him a championship caliber starting player. But he’s right. He has not been right this year. And that’s okay. He was the longest tenur Ranger now the longest tenur Ranger the longest guy in the Rangers system at least. He was also the longest tenur Ranger of the longest guy who had been on the big league club and now that’s I believe Adulus Garcia. Maybe Adulus Garcia made a couple of starts before but in terms of just tenure the entire time on the big league club. I think I think that’s Adulles Garcia at this point. In terms of the longest in the organization I think that’s Jacob Latz at this point. He was drafted in 2017. Looking at the guys on the big league roster, that’s about as close as it gets. Then after that, it’s Josh Young who was drafted in 2019 and he edges out a couple other 2019 drafties. Actually, Jonathan Arnellis was drafted in 2018. So, uh, if he stays on the big league roster, then that’s that’s the longest tenure ranger, but Leo Dev has been around for a long time. And I I am wishing Leo Diverus the best of luck with the rest of his career. Um, I’m wishing him uh a little bit less hard that luck a little bit less hard now that he is a member of the AL West leading Seattle Mariners. The Mariners have a lot of depth issues with their outfielders. Victor Robas, a guy who they claimed on waiverss and completely turned around. A guy who was another formerly elite top prospect with a lot of potential back in 2018 2019ish with the Washington Nationals. It was Victor Robles then Wanoto in terms of how they were thought of in their prospect status. Victor Robles was thought of as a higher prospect status. Then Juano just became one of the uh best hitters that the sport’s ever seen and Victor Robas was not that good. And then last year he was great. But then this year he had that truly horrifying injury, an arm injury that he was carded off the field on on uh in San Francisco that I I’m pretty darn sure has ended his season. And so they they need a little bit more depth out there in a corner. And Leody will not be playing center field every single day. He has gotten absolute cannon of an arm. He is an incredibly fast uh runner. I don’t think that Jerry Dotto I was seeing a clip from him and uh talking about how elite his defense is and I’m like, “Yeah, when it’s right, it’s it’s pretty good.” Um we’ll we’ll see if that ends up being the case. I’m honestly surprised that he made it all the way in waiverss to Seattle, made it past some of these other teams. I’m honestly genuinely shocked cuz he’s 26 years old. He still has a lot of upside there. You you can’t argue that that he does have some upside there. And he you’re paying $34 million for a potential everyday starting player. That’s that’s a bargain. That is a bargain. Even with his flaws, he that is still not that much to pay. It’s not saving the Rangers that much. Stop buying into the Ray Davis pushed narrative of, “Oh my gosh, the Rangers are so poor.” They’re not. They’re not. Stop buying it, please. This is not a broke team. This is a massive market. This is a massively successful franchise that can afford to pay the luxury tax. So, stop. Please, please, for me, stop buying the nonsense of, “Oh, this team is so poor. They save $3 million.” This is not the raise. This is not the raise. This is not in Tampa, Florida. This is not in Pittsburgh. This is not in Kansas City. This is not in some tiny market. This is in DFW, a massive media market. Heck, the fourth or third biggest media market. Please stop letting them tell you, these billionaires tell you that they’re broke. They’re not. None of them are. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Leo absolutely goes off against the Rangers. Thankfully, the Rangers don’t play the Mariners again for quite some time. Um, I’m very grateful for that. But I’m really surprised that he made it all the way past Houston, who has uh a really struggling offense so far this year. I have less confidence in Houston turning around their offense than I do in the Rangers. I mean, they’re the Rangers are even older. They have a lot less young guys with promise. There’s there’s no Wyatt Langford there. I mean, Cam Smith has been fine in right field, but he’s nowhere near uh what what Wyatt Langford has done. José Altuve is getting old and washed. Jeremy Payne is having a decent season, but their outfield depth is really, really bad, especially defensively. Um, trotting out José Altuve every single day in the outfield, it is uh it’s rough. It It’s just about as rough as watching him at second base. But, uh, props to the Mariners for, uh, getting Lily Diverus. I hope that he does well. I I hope that he does poorly there. Goes somewhere else. Go maybe to the NL East or or something. I don’t know. go to the maybe go to the Braves or or just the Marlins or somewhere not right in my face where if Leo Diverus blossoms into the player that uh I hoped he could be uh for a long time, it’s going to be really frustrating to watch that on a rival team that is doing incredibly well with their offense, this offense turning things around. But the pitching staff of this Rangers squad, I want to talk about Nathan Eavaldi’s day today because he was fantastic. Even in the pouring rain, which if you delay the game 30 minutes and you couldn’t have delayed it 15 more to actually get past the rain, it’s really frustrating. I was a little worried. I was actually a lot worried that Nathan Yaldi’s, you know, start was going to be basically scratchy was just going to have to pitch one inning and then it was going to downpour long enough that Nathan Evaldi couldn’t go back out there. he couldn’t go back out there very long. I’m glad that they were able to play through it, but six innings of one-run ball. Um, it got hit hard a little bit towards the end of his start. I think that’s why he didn’t go out there for a seventh inning, even though he was only at 90 pitches. He’s been super economical with his pitch count. I think that the the rain led to him throwing that horrible walk that one of the very very few walks he’s had so far this season. Heck, he had uh what, four walks? Uh, no, excuse me, three walks. He had more hit by pitches than walks last month. Um he has had four walks so far this season. This was the fourth walk this season. He had seven strikeouts in this one. And uh the fast ball velocity was was up a little bit of a tick. I mean not not a full tick, but it was looking, you know, better. He threw what I believe is his hardest pitch of the year so far. 97.6 miles per hour. He was averaging a little bit over 94. He’s been at 93.8 on the year. So just just a smidge up there. It’s sitting more in the 94 95 uh kind of a range. Um also working in the splitter and the cutter. I mean 90 pitches, 354 seam fast balls, 22 splitters, 17 cutters, 16 curve balls. I mean these hitters had no idea what was coming at him. He was also kind of quick pitching them, working on his delivery, you know, altering it and really really messing with hitters timing. Gosh, I freaking love watching Nathan Eovaldi pitch. This guy is There’s been a lot of guys that I’ve been wrong about and that the Rangers have brought in. There’s been quite a few. Nathaniel Low stands out as one that I was very wrong about. I thought, why are you doing this? Never trade with the Rays. You’re not going to get the best of the Rays. And the Rangers did. And they got three, four, three, several quality seasons out of Nathaniel Low as an everyday starting first baseman. And it only cost him a bunch of prospects that didn’t end up hurting in the long run. When the Raiders signed Nathan Yavaldi after they had already signed what felt like 17 different starting pitchers in in that winter where Chris Young’s first time in charge, he bought a million starting pitchers. I thought, “Okay, they don’t really need Nathan Yaldi. I don’t really know much about this guy. Everyone in Boston loves him. I don’t really get it.” I looked at the peripherals. I’m like, “Okay, he doesn’t walk guys. He doesn’t really strike out out that many. He hasn’t been healthy. What What’s the big deal?” I didn’t know about Big Gang Nate. did not know Ball when it came to my assessment of Nathan Evoli, but since he has been a member of the Texas Rangers, my goodness, what a godsend this man has been. Every single big game they have needed, he has stepped up. They have been, I believe, limiting his pitch count a little bit in his start so far this year, but he hasn’t really been letting it eat in terms of the velocity so far this year. He hasn’t gone over 100 pitches yet this season. He’s gone to 99. Just a couple of times he went to 99 pitches in that complete game shut out. Maddox against the Reds. Um he went 99 pitches in six innings against San Francisco. He went 92 pitches against the Athletics. Um when was that? That was last week on the 30th. And then in this game, six innings of one run ball. He got hit hard the last few batters that he faced, including that line out to Wyatt Langford out there in left field. Playing some really, really great defense. I’ll talk more about that in a second. And more about this pitching step, but just 90 pitches in this one. I think the Rangers have learned how to take best care of Nathan Evaldi. Not pushing him too hard. And it’s not just Nathan Evaldi carrying the staff. That’s what it looked like before the season. There’s just been Nate Dog having to pitch seven, eight, maybe nine times, nine innings every single start. He has averaged six innings per start. And he has not been the only one healthy and dominating in this staff. This has been an incredible rotation. And we have been so focused on the floundering offense that we haven’t had time to properly focus on how great this starting pitching staff is. We’re going to do that and more right after this. This show is brought to you by Supply House. Get your get the supplies you need from the site that’s made for the skilled trades. Supply house. Whether you’re in plumbing, HVAC, or electrical to work work, Supply House is the reliable way to order products online. Their easy use website is packed with helpful resources and the latest product info to help you get the job done right. Plus, with a complete inventory of over 200,000 parts from 400 plus top brands, you find exactly what you need delivered fast from coast to coast. Need help with an order? Supply house offers expert support and industryleading service, so you’ll always talk to a real person. 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Now the Rangers rotation, it has not just been uh Jacob Deg Grom and friends. It has not just been Jacob Grom, Nathan Yvaldi and friends. It has been Tyler Mi really and also his friends Nathan Evaldi and Jacob Grom and also Patrick Corbett. I mean this rotation has been so darn good. It has been so good. We have been so blinded by the struggles of this offense. Honestly, rightfully so. It has been the story because it’s been so Matty because these pitchers have been so darn good. After last night’s start, Nathan Yavali a 1.5 baseball reference for a season in eight starts, 48 and 2/3 innings, 53 strikeouts, just four walks, just three homers, a league leading 0.801 whip. So that’s walks plus hits per pitch. He is allowing four fifths of a walking hit per in any inning pitched. He has got a league, excuse me, Major League Baseball leading. Both of these are Major League Baseball leading point seven walks per nine. Just.7. This is peak Nathan Evaldi. He’s doing it also without velocity. He is just the He is a crafty righty, but he also occasionally can pull out 98 out of his bag. I think he’s saving it more for those starts down the stretch, but also a baseball leading 13.25 strikeouts per walk. And if not for the slippery baseball, then he that might have been even higher. He has only had four walks and eight starts. Four walks in eight starts where he’s averaging six innings a start. That is awesome. And this guy, his thought was, I don’t know if this guy’s going to be worth $25 million a year. Gosh, $75 million for three years. What a freaking bargain. He’s been the second best starter so far this year. Right now, Jacob Deg Grom looking very much like himself. Even with those rough first three, four starts of the year, they weren’t that terrible. They were just fine. But so far this year, Jacob Deg Grom has a 261 ERA, which is top 10 in the American League. and number two I believe in the American League RA. The Rangers have three starting pitchers in the top 10 of ERA. No, he’s Yeah, he’s number two behind Max Freed. Max Freed, man. The Ranger looking very smart because they’re they’re two big starting rotation purchases. They were between Max Freed and Nathan Yaldi. Right now, Max Freed has a 101 RA with the New York Yankees. Tyler Valley is second in the American League with a 119 ERA. Now, his last couple starts have been a little rough. He that the only reason that uh that he’s not leading Major League Baseball in its Bernies because of those last rough last couple of starts, but the Rangers, you look at their RA plus for their top three starters. Heck, you go top four. I’m throwing Patrick Corbin in here. He’s made five starts. He’s been really darn good for the Rangers in those five starts. Nathan Evaldi, RA plus for 100 is average. He’s been 88% better than league average, a 188 RA plus. Jacob Deg Grom, who’s been the third best Rangers starter so far this year, which seems bonkers to say at any point in the season, a 147 RA plus. So, he’s 47% better than the average pitcher. Then Tyler Valley, a 321 RA plus. He has been more than three times better, the average pitcher. And then Patrick Corbin, 117 RA plus. That’s awesome for your top four starters. That’s awesome. He’s averaging almost four, five innings per start. And that is without any spring training with one 80 80 pitch simulated game before the Rangers got him into this big league rotation. Patrick Corbin, my humblest apologies. I have been so wrong about you. Even if he blows up down the stretch what he’s been doing so far, the Rangers have three starting pitchers right now on the IIL. They’ve got three starting pitchers on the IIL. And the current guy that is the number four man in the rotation has been 17% battling average. And that is with him being the worst starting pitcher in baseball for the last half decade. This starting staff has been awesome. It’s been awesome. And it’s not just the results that they’ve put up, but you you look at the teams that they’ve done it against. I mean, they’ve barely had any blowup starts. When they’ve blown up, boy, have they blown up like that start that Jack Lighter had against against Seattle. But you look at the amount of times that this team has given up. They’ve played 36 games so far. Times they’ve given up more than four runs in a game. It’s 10 in 36 games. The whole staff, the bullpin included, the time they’ve given up more than four runs in a game is 10. More than five, just six times. Just one out of six times they’ve given up more than five. And and most of those just been around six. There haven’t been that many blowup starts. So, if the Rangers have scored had scored six, excuse me, six runs in every single game so far this season, which would be a lot. It’d be averaging a lot, they would only have lost at most six games. I believe they would have lost five or so. They might have tied a couple of those. They might have given up exactly six a couple of times, but they’ve done it against great great offense. They played the the Boston Boston for the first four games. They played the Red Sox for three games. They played the Rays, a decent offense. And you know, two of these times that they’ve done this, given up more than four or five runs, were against the Cubs, which looked like an unbeatable offense. But they went up against the Dodgers. The Dodgers had the best record in all baseball right now. The most runs they gave up in a game was three. They gave up three runs in the first game, three runs in the second game, one run in the final game. They were able to squeak out one win in that series. They should have squeaked out some more, but then they’ve shut down that absolutely on fire Angels offense in that series at home. They played the Athletics and they didn’t give up that many runs. Especially, you look back at that last series, why it was so maddening. Granted, they deserve to lose that that game where they lost one to seven. You get up seven runs, you’re probably going to lose most of those games. But they limited the A’s offense to two runs the first game, two runs in the second game and three runs in that final game. This is a great A’s offense. It’s not just a good A’s offense. I was wrong about them. They are a great A’s offense. And then against the Mariners, they two runs at the Saturday game and just one run on the Sunday game. These are good offenses that the Rangers have mostly shut down. It’s not like the Rangers are just playing the Pittsburgh Pirates every single day. This pitching staff has been incredible and I think that’s why the frustration with the offense has reached such a fever pitch because they’re not asking if the Rangers had just been an average offense. I am not asking for this Rangers offense to be, you know, juggernauts. I’m not asking this for the to be the 99 Rangers offense, the 96 Rangers offense, the 98 Rangers offense, the 2011 Rangers offense, or heck, even the 2023 offense. I’m not asking it to be that. It doesn’t have to be that for this to be a team that, you know, honestly, if they had hit even like around their around the back of their baseball cards, that that’s what I was hoping for bouncing into this year that everybody hits about like they’ve hit in their careers. This would be a team in first place. Right now, the Seattle Bears are on top of the division at 21 and 14. That is three games behind behind in the win column, four games behind in the loss column, three and a half games out. And this offense has been one of the worst in baseball. They are three and a half games out because this pitching staff is so incredibly good. And heck, even the defense, the defense has been awesome, too. I mean, Evan Carter out there, I mean, he’s like a book girl because all he’s doing out there is making good reads. That is a joke for my girlfriend and any book nerds out there. You look at there in Wyatt Langford in left field. He has been sensational out there in left field and a very difficult left field to play in Fenway. I mean, he had an assist at second base. He played a ball perfectly off the Green Monster. I’m pretty sure he bare-handed it off the wall. Um, I don’t even know that if it hopped off the ground. I think it was just right off the wall. Bare-handed strike to second base and then a leaping grab out there in left field. I love watching Evan Carter out there. in center field. He makes such great reads. He’s not going to make as many highlight reel plays as Leo Diverus when he’s right, but he’s also not gonna goof up those easy ones. And the rest of this defense, I mean, Josh Smith playing 18 bazillion different positions. I bet we’ll see Josh Smith a lot at first base right now while Jake Burgerer is down in AAA. He played his first game today. He got, I believe, a couple hits, maybe a hit in a walk and a strikeout um in his first AAA game in quite some time. Hopefully that reset can get him going, can get that power swing going. Hopefully the rest of these Rangers can get that power swing going. But, you know, he had a great play on a line drive that he’s he’s using Blaine Crim’s glove, so it’s a little bigger than he’s used to. Um, it was a a line drive that he jumped and he caught and he was looking for it. He couldn’t figure out where it was, and oh, it was in his glove. This defense has been so darn good. This pitching staff, the rotation, the bullpen also shutting things down. Sean Armstrong, four outs of uh perfect baseball. Robert Garcia comes in, gets a couple lefties to strike out. Chris Martin finishes this game off in not a save situation with a couple of strikeouts as well. This is a darn good team and the offense doesn’t have to be a juggernaut to get this team to the postseason because this starting rotation, you get the postseason with how good this rotation has been. This team has every chance to make the Bruce Bochi every other year World Series championship pattern continue. That’s going to do it for today’s show. Thank you’all so much for listening and subscribing. Until next time, don’t forget to enjoy baseball.

The Texas Rangers fired offensive coordinator Donnie Ecker and placed CF Leody Taveras on waivers after the offense struggled mightily this season. Chris Young hired Bret Boone to be Texas’ new hitting coach and will call up Evan Carter to take the everyday center field job. The Seattle Mariners claimed Leody Taveras to help with their lack of outfield depth.

Boone was a good major leaguer for 14 seasons but doesn’t have any coaching experience, which could be a good thing. Carter struggled mightily in spring training with his health and mechanics as well as his mental approach, but has righted the ship lately in AAA.

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