Texas Rangers’ Nicky Lopez (33) Ezequiel Duran, center, and Wyatt Langford, right, celebrate at the end of a baseball game against the Kansas City Royals in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)
Colin E. Braley/AP Photo/Colin E. Braley
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The Rangers had reason to be salty Thursday, forced to sit through more than two hours of a ginned-up rain delay lacking in any actual precipitation so that the host Kansas City Royals could protect a thinned out pitching staff.
It was the perfect opportunity for a team looking for an edge to find one.
Good news: They got a win. Better news: They finally got back to .500 for the first time in seven tries dating back five weeks. About the edge: Hey, it’s a still work in progress.
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The Rangers rode out a 4-2 win over Kansas City on a mostly sun-swept Thursday to get to 34-34, but it came the hard way on a day when it should have come much easier. But at least they tried. They ran hard and bunted often, though with mixed results. They at least looked the part of an inconvenienced and annoyed team. It’s the thought that matters. Well, almost as much as Jacob “High Leverage” Latz, but more on him in a minute.
“I think we showed killer instinct,” manager Skip Schumaker said. “I think we might have gone too far, being too aggressive sometimes, and it maybe cost us some extra runs. But I’d rather have the edge and try to do things. If it doesn’t work, at least we tried and we know what we can’t do again.”
Texas Rangers’ Corey Seager (5) celebrates his home run with Brandon Nimmo, left, during the third inning of a baseball game in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)
Colin E. Braley/AP Photo/Colin E. Braley
Though they scored in each of the first three innings, they couldn’t knock out Michael Wacha and get to an overworked and terrible Royals bullpen to give their own young starter, Kumar Rocker, more breathing room. The Rangers had three runners tagged out at third base in the first six innings. They also had a bunt go awry, leading to one of those outs at third. Rocker couldn’t work efficiently enough to give himself more leeway. And, so once again, it fell to the lefties to hold down the fort. Robbie Ahlstrom and Latz combined to allow one baserunner (later eliminated on a double play) over 3 ⅓ innings of work.
Latz, pitching for a second straight day, was asked to pitch the eighth because the Royals string of tough lefties was coming up. The Rangers figured he had maybe 20 total pitches to work with and were prepared to go with somebody else in the ninth. Latz needed just seven pitches to get through the eighth and eight in the ninth. He was so good, he cost himself his fourth two-inning save of the year; the official scorer instead awarded him the win. Now, comes the next question since it’s All-Star season: Will MLB officially recognize just how valuable he’s been?
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“He just reminds me so much of Tanner Scott in my first year in Miami,” Schumaker said. “We didn’t really know what Tanner was going to bring, and then you look up and he’s pitching the highest-leverage games and ends up being an All-Star-caliber closer. Jacob is getting righties, lefties, eighth inning, ninth inning. He’s been as good as anybody I’ve been around and I’ve been around some good ones.”
So an All-Star closer, Skip?
“I think he’s an All-Star caliber pitcher, whatever you want to call him,” Schumaker said.
Latz acknowledged being a little annoyed when he entered the game, not by the situation at hand, but like most of the rest of the team, peeved at being held over unnecessarily in Kansas City.
“We all kind of brought that out there today from the beginning,” said Latz, who lowered his ERA to 1.69. “It was a day game after a night game, getaway day, we’re all trying to get a little extra fuel and we let that carry us a little.”
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Members of the Kansas City Royals grounds crew remove the infield tarp after a more than two-hour rain delay before a baseball game against the Texas Rangers in Kansas City, Mo., Thursday, June 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Colin E. Braley)
Colin E. Braley/AP Photo/Colin E. Braley
The game was delayed by 2:20 due to the threat of rain, though no measurable rain actually fell at Kauffman Stadium before the scheduled game time or during the delay period. There was, however, the possibility of self-interest in the Royals’ decision to delay the start. One official with knowledge of the delay discussions acknowledged Kansas City’s own pitching issued was a key in the decision making.
Kansas City had used seven relievers Wednesday after Seth Lugo took a line drive off his forehead, four of them for a second consecutive day and another for 39 pitches. The Royals were effectively without at least five of the eight relievers in the bullpen and could hardly afford to start a game, then have a delay that forced them to go to the bullpen early.
Instead, they paid the punishment forward to the Rangers, making a grueling June travel schedule just a little harder. It pushed the Rangers’ scheduled arrival into their Boston hotel until approximately 2 a.m. ET Friday.
This stretch of the schedule, during which the Rangers are playing 23 games in 24 days, had already become a little wonky thanks to the World Cup and TV. NBC Peacock picked up the Sunday finale at Boston, which moved it to a 7:20 p.m. ET time start, meaning they will arrive home Monday at close to 4 a.m. ahead of a game that night with Minnesota. That series would have been a Tuesday-Thursday series but had to be reconfigured because of the England-Croatia match across the street at Jerry World on Wednesday. Instead, the teams will play Monday and Tuesday, have Wednesday off and play the series finale on Thursday.
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“I think you see their situation with their arms and when it doesn’t rain for two hours, and then you’re flying to Boston, and getting into Boston at 1 a.m. or whatever, you feel pretty good about going out there with a chip on your shoulder and taking this game,” first baseman Jake Burger said.
For a change, the Rangers let the chip on their shoulders show.
Now, the next step is to go full killer instinct.