Texas Rangers’ Joc Pederson follows through on an RBI double during the fifth inning of a baseball game against St. Louis Cardinals Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Jeff Roberson/AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
ST. LOUIS — This may come as a bit of a shock after the last, oh, two-plus snore-a-thon seasons, but the Rangers are suddenly playing fun baseball.
They are hitting line drives. They are capitalizing on run-scoring situations. They are flashing signs for small-ball – and getting the message. And because of it, they are capable of bailing out starters and putting together winning streaks.
And at the center of all this: Joc Pederson, who is on a heater, typical of his pre-Texas career.
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On Tuesday, all of that added up to a 7-4 win over St. Louis, extending the Rangers’ winning streak to five games, their longest of the season. They can move back to .500 for the first time since May 1 on Wednesday if they can complete the sweep. It would also match the longest winning streak since the Rangers hung their World Series banner.
And, oh, yeah, they are once again holding a playoff position, if that matters 61 games into the season. Baseball is weird, man. But this is the kind of baseball manager Skip Schumaker would like to play: An offensive version of a full-court press, right now led by Pederson.
“I think he feels dangerous again,” Schumaker said after Pederson went 3 for 4 with a pair of doubles and the go-ahead single in the ninth.
“[Monday] he was trying to bunt on his own. It shows you where he is at and where they are at. There is a ton of buy-in. They are trying to do whatever it takes to win. [Pederson] is just a winning player. He’s going to do whatever it takes to help us win, and I think the other guys are seeing that. They are seeing what small ball does when you are having trouble scoring runs. But it also puts pressure on defense and gets infielders moving around. Everybody is on red alert right now because the signs are going crazy. But they are into it. It’s a fun style of baseball and it’s a lot of fun to manage.”
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Before we unpack all of that, a word about the efforts of Jalen Beeks, who was called on in a nearly impossible situation in the seventh after Nathan Eovaldi ran out of tricks when facing the Cardinals the fourth time through. Eovaldi blew a 4-2 lead and left a pair of inherited runners and nobody out for Beeks, who was one of the few rested and experienced relievers in the bullpen. He danced through five hitters to stop the rally, get the Rangers into the eighth and allow the offense and Pederson to do what they’ve been doing lately.
Specifically: Manufacture runs. In the ninth, Evan Carter worked his way to a leadoff walk, perhaps used the threat of his legs to force an errant pitch that allowed him to get to second and he moved to third on Kyle Higashioka’s third line-drive hit of the night, two of them to the opposite field, another new Ranger trick.
Pederson lined a single to left, the opposite field for him, on a sinker at his shoe tops to score the go-ahead run. Josh Jung followed with the third line drive single of the game. And Brandon Nimmo lifted a sacrifice fly to center field. It was the Rangers’ second sac fly of the game.
In the five-game winning streak, they’ve had three sac flies, a pair of sac bunts, an attempted safety squeeze, five steals without being thrown out and have forced opponents into five errors. They are also hitting significantly more line drives, 24.8% of the balls in play in the four games prior to Wednesday, about 15% higher than their season rate.
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Texas Rangers’ Michael Helman, left, scores past St. Louis Cardinals catcher Pedro Pagés during the ninth inning of a baseball game Tuesday, June 2, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
Jeff Roberson/AP Photo/Jeff Roberson
Just what Pederson loves, perhaps as much as clubhouse cribbage. And Pederson is apparently cleaning up at both, leaving playing partner Cal Quantrill and opponents equally flustered. Over the last 25 games, he’s put together a slash line that ends with a 1.094 OPS. As the leadoff hitter, he’s reached seven times to start the first inning in the 15 games since moving to the top.
“When you get more hits, you feel dangerous in the box,” Pederson said when asked if he’s become Joc Dangerously. “It’s been good. There’s a lot of motion on the field, a lot of pressure, lots of moving the ball forward; I think our strikeouts are down. I think when you are winning everything goes a lot smoother.”
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Thanks to Joc Dangerously and his band, the jazz around here hasn’t been this smooth around here in what seems like ages.
It’s been something else, too: Fun.