TORONTO, CANADA – JUNE 27: Cal Quantrill #44 of the Texas Rangers pitches in the first inning of their MLB game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on June 27, 2026 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Cole Burston/Getty Images)
Cole Burston/Getty Images
TORONTO — Rangers right-handed pitcher Cal Quantrill was struck on the calf by a comebacker, limped in a circle behind the mound, chatted with the team’s trainer, faced five more batters and struck out the last three to conclude the kind of extended-opener-start that’s required to navigate stretches like these.
“That’s warrior mentality,” Rangers first baseman Jake Burger said, “and, you know, I think that’s what this team needs more of.”
There’s no clear-cut way to define what warrior mentality represents, though if Burger’s use of it to describe Quantrill’s start is truly apt, that makeup might apply to the other characteristics featured in a 7-4 win against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Saturday.
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It might’ve manifested itself in the way the offense wore down and chased an elite starter. It might’ve manifested itself in the way a rookie pitcher shouldered responsibility with the bullpen’s two highest-leverage arms down. It might’ve manifested itself in the way the Rangers, for a third-straight win, were able to do just enough to withstand a late push in a hostile environment for only their second series win north of the border in the last eight seasons.
“These kinds of wins are the wins that we just haven’t had as much luck with this year,” Quantrill said. “Hopefully we can get on a little bit of a roll here and win some of these 50-50 games.”
Quantrill threw four scoreless innings, one more than the club had hoped he could log, and was forced to start because of the rotation’s shorthanded nature. He turned it over to a taxed bullpen — one without right-handed pitcher Jakob Junis and left-handed pitcher Jacob Latz, after the two had already thrown on back-to-back days — that promptly allowed two runs in consecutive innings to let the Blue Jays dig into a sizable lead for the third-straight game.
Right-handed pitcher Peyton Gray, an undrafted rookie who’s worked himself into a high-leverage role, then pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings to squash any comeback effort.
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“I knew somebody was going to need to step up,” Gray said, “So, going into that last inning, that’s kind of what I said. We’re trying to not use too many guys, so, might as well go back in.”
So, like, you knew it had to be you?
“Yeah,” he said, “essentially.”
Gray struck out the side in the seventh inning, logged a perfect eighth and created a runway for left-handed pitcher Tyler Alexander to notch his third save of the season in the ninth.
“There’s multiple things that happened today,” Schumaker said. “The fact that [Alexander] closed this game out was incredible. I didn’t have him available until right before the game. To have Peyton Gray go two-plus innings, to have Cal start, they all did an incredible job.”
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So much happened, as Schumaker noted more than three minutes into his postgame news conference, that he hadn’t “even talked about the offense yet.” The Rangers tagged right-handed pitcher Dylan Cease for four runs in less than five innings, scored another three against a pair of relievers and are now 31-10 when they score first in games this season.
Burger plated the first run when, with two runners on in the first inning, he lifted a slider into center field for a bloop single that scored shortstop Corey Seager from second base. He drove in Texas’ second run, too, with a hard-hit single that ended a six-pitch at-bat with two outs in the fourth inning. Outfielder Alejandro Osuna, who only started because center fielder Wyatt Langford was scratched just minutes before the game with hamstring tightness, hit a bases-loaded double against left-handed pitcher Mason Flahurty two at-bats later.
Catcher Elias Diaz followed Osuna with a two-run double of his own in the next at-bat to extend the lead to six runs, and in the sixth inning, Seager hit a solo home run against right-handed pitcher Braydon Fisher for his first hit since he returned from the concussion injured list two days ago.
“This is who we can be on a regular basis,” Burger said. “I think that builds confidence for this entire group.”