Texas Rangers'Josh Jung follows the flight of his double off Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Victor Vodnik in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Texas Rangers’Josh Jung follows the flight of his double off Colorado Rockies relief pitcher Victor Vodnik in the eighth inning of a baseball game, Monday, May 18, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

David Zalubowski/AP Photo/David Zalubowski

DENVER — There’s no need for a long-winded introduction to unpack a literal tragedy of errors. Rangers third baseman Josh Jung may be in agreement given how he offered this self-evaluation before a question directed toward his defense could be completed in its entirety. 

“I’m giving up a lot of runs,” Jung said.

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It can be the difference between a win or a loss. 

Or a moment met or missed. 

The Rangers lost 7-6 against the last-place Colorado Rockies at Coors Field Monday night in a game where they allowed two unearned runs to score on a pair of infield errors. The first came courtesy shortstop Ezequiel Duran, who, in the third inning, made an errant throw to first baseman Jake Burger that allowed catcher Hunter Goodman to reach base. The second happened two at-bats later when Jung, with runners on first and second base in a one-run game, misplayed a ground ball hit by third baseman Kyle Karros to his left and allowed two runs to score.

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“We gave up two runs,” Jung said, “and lose by one.”

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It’s a simple formula for one singular game, but when the perspective is scaled back, it represents a more worrisome trend of opportunities that haven’t been capitalized upon. The Rangers are in the midst of a nine-game road trip against baseball’s three worst teams by record, but through the four games of it, they’ve won just once and lost three in various gruesome fashions. The stretch theoretically represented a pause from the arduous first-quarter schedule that the Rangers navigated relatively well despite injuries and an inefficient offense. 

It’s instead turned into a four-game window of whiffed chances in which the Rangers were shut out in the first loss, held to one run in the second and victimized by their own miscues in the third. 

“Errors are going to happen, and unfortunately, a couple runs scored because of them,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “You look up and we lose by one. Those days do happen, but in this ballpark, because of the environment, you’ve got to play fundamental baseball and we just didn’t do that today.” 

The fact that little of anything shook the Rangers’ way — including their suspect defense and a cold rain that stuck around for much of the game — didn’t help either. They placed shortstop Corey Seager on the injured list hours before first pitch with lower back inflammation, where he joined left fielder Wyatt Langford, and lost their starting pitcher soon after. Left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore exited after one frame of work with what he described as a “cramp” in his shoulder-and-back area after the Rockies scored two runs on three hits and two walks in the first inning. 

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It triggered an impromptu bullpen game, the club’s second in a week’s span, in a ballpark which Schumaker stressed the importance of clean defense and savvy base running both before and after the loss. The quintet of Peyton Gray, Jalen Beeks, Gavin Collyer, Cole Winn and Jakob Junis combined to allow only three earned runs in seven innings of work. 

The two unearned runs, both of which scored on Jung’s fumble, were the costly ones given how the offense rallied late. The Rangers scored in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings to cut the deficit to one behind second baseman Justin Foscue (3 for 3 with a home run, two doubles and a walk), Duran (3 for 4 with 2 runs scored and 2 driven in) and Jung himself (his leadoff double ignited their three-run eighth). The tying run reached third base in that inning, but with two outs, pinch-hitter Kyle Higashioka popped out to the catcher.

It might’ve unwound differently had Duran or Jung made tighter plays five innings prior. The Rangers as a collective unit have taken a step back defensively from last season to this season. They led baseball in fielding percentage a year ago and graded as a top-five defense in the American League by most major advanced metrics. This season they rank anywhere from average to below average league-wide in outs above average, defensive runs saved and fielding run value. 

“It’s not like lack of work, or lack of prep, or anything, and I still feel like they’re really good defenders,” Schumaker said. “We just haven’t played really clean baseball all the time. I’m pretty confident that it’s going to clean up, because we’re going to do whatever we can on the coaching staff to get these guys to where they want to be, and the good news is they’re not happy about it either.”

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Jung, statistically a plus defender in two of the last three seasons, has been among the largest violators. His negative-4 fielding run value and negative-4 outs above average are both tied for second-worst among all qualified third basemen in baseball. The 28-year-old took responsibility postgame for his defensive performance, acknowledged that he hasn’t gotten to short hops the way he usually does and believes that he needs to take better first steps when the ball is hit. 

“I’ve got to be a lot better than what I’ve shown because this has been terrible,” Jung said, “and I’m letting the team down.”