Texas Rangers can’t fix leaks fast enough on sinking ship that is 2025 season

TORONTO — The Texas Rangers sailed a metaphorical ship north of the border with a sprung leak that they’ve attempted to patch on the fly all season.

Their woeful offense, which caught the ire of manager Bruce Bochy on their most recent homestand and brought a new-look lineup into a three-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays, has consumed the majority of this team’s immediate attention this season.

The back end blew out and took on a tidal wave’s worth of water while they were busy with it.

Rangers

The Texas bullpen, once an undeniable strength, has quickly eroded at a critical point in the regular season. Friday’s series-opening 6-5 loss to the Blue Jays at the Rogers Center marked the third consecutive game in which their team of high-leverage arms imploded late to extend a miserable stretch of baseball. The trio of left-hander Robert Garcia, left-hander Danny Coulombe and right-hander Phil Maton combined to allow six runs in a two-inning span between the seventh and eighth innings.

The Rangers have lost seven of their last eight games and are under .500 at 61-62 for the first time since the final day of the season’s first half. They are now seven-and-a-half games behind the first-place Houston Astros in the American League West and four games back of the third Wild Card spot.

“The bullpen,” Bochy said Friday night. “Rough day for them. There’s not much else to say.”

There is much else to unpack.

Garcia entered in the seventh inning after right-handers Jacob deGrom (five shutout innings) and Cole Winn (one shutout inning) handed him a 3-0 lead thanks to a three-run home run from catcher Kyle Higashioka. He allowed a leadoff single to Toronto third baseman Addison Barger before catcher Alejandro Kirk yanked his changeup into right-center field for a two-run home run that cut the Texas lead to one.

The 29-year-old left-hander — acquired in an offseason trade with the Washington Nationals in exchange for the recently designated-for-assignment first baseman Nathaniel Lowe — has allowed at least one run in five of his last seven appearances. He has a 12.60 ERA since Aug. 1 and has allowed four home runs in that span.

Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) scores a run against the Texas Rangers during...

Toronto Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. (27) scores a run against the Texas Rangers during the eighth inning of a baseball game in Toronto on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Frank Gunn / AP

Garcia was named closer midseason but was demoted after consecutive blown saves against the Seattle Mariners earlier this month. Bochy intended to work Garcia back into the fold with “softer” entry points. The Rangers held a one-run lead when Garcia’s errant defense allowed the Arizona Diamondbacks to tie the game and eventually win. On Friday, with a three-run lead, he was brought on to face a trio of left-handed hitters.

He got just one out.

“Well, obviously, we’ll revisit,” Bochy said of the plan from here on out with Garcia. “The pocket was right there for him with the lefties. Just gave up another home run.”

Bochy could have turned to left-hander Hoby Milner, their bullpen ace who’s held lefty hitters to a .194 average this season, for that stretch of batters. Bochy was asked if he’d planned to save Milner for later in the game had the Rangers maintained a lead.

“Well, I had Hoby, we had three lefties,” Bochy said. “When you don’t use somebody, that’s the way it goes.”

It went as such. Coulombe — who entered with a three-run lead after second baseman Marcus Semien hit a two-run home run the half-inning prior — started the eighth and allowed three consecutive singles to let a run score.

He was replaced by Maton with no outs and runners on the corners. Maton walked two batters to load the bases and score a run before Kirk lined a curveball back up the middle to give the Blue Jays their first lead of the night.

Coulombe and Maton were acquired before July’s trade deadline from the Minnesota Twins and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively, to bolster the Texas bullpen. They’ve now led directly to three-straight losses. Both allowed go-ahead ninth-inning home runs to Diamondbacks second baseman Ketel Marte in back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Coulombe had a 1.16 ERA in 40 games with the Twins but has a 6.35 ERA in seven games with the Rangers. Maton had a 2.35 ERA in 40 games with the Cardinals and has a 7.36 ERA in seven games with the Rangers. Go figure.

“You play 162 games,” Coulombe said. “That’s a lot of games. Nobody is going to be perfect all year. That’s a really good bullpen and we’ll just keep going.”

The bullpen, to Coulombe’s point, had been largely dependable for the majority of this season. Their 3.39 ERA through July 31 was the fourth-lowest in baseball despite the fact that the Rangers did not have an experienced closer on the roster and were reliant on pitchers with more precision than power.

They have a 6.41 ERA in the team’s last seven games and have picked up three of their six losses in that span. They’ll now continue a seven-games-in-seven-days stretch with the large majority of their high-leverage arms having already pitched and without right-handed setup man Chris Martin after he suffered a setback in his recovery from a calf strain.

It’s a tricky situation that the Rangers have not yet needed to navigate this season. It even forced deGrom — who carded his best start in nearly a month and exited after 84 pitches to preserve his arm — to reflect on his night with more regret than necessary.

“We made the decision to come out in the fifth,” deGrom said. “Looking back, I probably wish I would’ve gone out there to give the bullpen a little bit more so they wouldn’t have had to cover as much innings. It’s a tough loss, we’ve got to regroup.”

Before things begin to truly sink.

Twitter:@McFarland_Shawn

Another Jacob deGrom gem goes to waste as Texas Rangers continue to spiral