Texas Rangers pitcher Chase Silseth (63) turns the ball over to manager Skip Schumaker as Cody Freeman, left, and Elias Díaz, right, stand by during the ninth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Friday, Sept. 4, 2026, in Arlington, Texas.
Tony Gutierrez/AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
ARLINGTON – When it comes time for the official autopsy on this Rangers season is conducted – and it’s looking like sometime in the next three weeks might be available – there will be a long list of abnormalities to sort through.
Couldn’t beat good teams.
Couldn’t win on the road.
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Couldn’t complete comebacks.
The last of those was evident Friday, even on a night when Elias Díaz hit the first grand slam of the Rangers season and when the team scored five runs over the final three innings. It still wasn’t enough to overcome a deficit dug by Kumar Rocker and finished by Chase Silseth in a 7-6 loss to Tampa Bay.
“This was just a tough loss for us today,” manager Skip Schumaker said.
Boy, was it ever. Each loss now carries consequences, and they grow greater by the day. On Friday, the loss was made worse by the fact Cleveland, currently holding the final AL wild card berth, twice walked off Detroit in sweeping a doubleheader. Didn’t stop there. Toronto won for the sixth time in its last seven games and Houston won for the eighth time in its last 11.
The other teams battling for the final playoff spots have gotten hot. The Rangers remain tepid. As a result, they find themselves three games back in the AL West, matching their greatest deficit of the season, and two games back in the hunt for the wild card race with Toronto sitting between them and Cleveland.
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One thing you can say with consistency about this Rangers offense: When it’s been down, well, it’s been out. They don’t come back.
Yes, Díaz’s grand slam provided a momentary glimmer, as did his ninth-inning sacrifice fly, but the Rangers have been among the worst comeback teams in baseball this year. Their 24 come-from-behind wins rank as the fifth fewest in baseball, ahead of only the Los Angeles Angels, Pittsburgh, Detroit and San Francisco.
They entered the game with the sixth-worst OPS when trailing in games and the 27th most runs in innings 7-9. They do work early or not at all.
That’s what made Friday’s loss sting even worse. The offense did do work late. And it was still for naught. Rocker, whom the Rangers pushed from starting into a bulk relief role to try to optimize his abilities, entered the game in the third, gave up a game-tying homer to the second batter he faced, then gave up the go-ahead homer with two outs in the fourth.
It got worse. Facing the top of the order for a second time, Rocker allowed three straight doubles. The first came after falling behind Yandy Diaz 3-and-1 and having to come over the plate. The next two came on 0-2 pitches to Jonathan Aranda and Junior Caminero. When the dust cleared from the inning, Tampa Bay scored four times to take a 6-1 lead.
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It would be easy to assume Rocker, who has passed 130 innings for the season and doubled his season total from last year, is tired. Perhaps he is. The velocity didn’t show it, though, Schumaker said. Perhaps the execution did.
“He threw it into their hot zones,” Schumaker said. “He threw it there a few times and paid for it. There were some really good pitches made. His [velocity] was good. The slider shape was good. But the top four hitters in their lineup, they are going to make you pay if you make mistake. And he made a few of them.”
Said Rocker: “I can live with solo homers. But I had a lot of guys in the hole. When you get bled to death with four runs, that’s something I can’t let happen. Whenever I’m called to take the ball, I try to go out there and compete to the fullest that I can. And tonight I didn’t do it. That was on me. I did not get the job done for the team.”
Despite all that, the Rangers nearly did make a big comeback. Diaz, hitting ninth, hit a one-out laser of a grand slam in the seventh to draw them within one run. Justin Foscue followed with a single to bring up the club’s biggest offensive threat: Corey Seager. But he bounced into a double play.
In the ninth, after Silseth allowed the top three hitters in the Rays’ lineup to manufacture a run in the top half of the inning, the Rangers’ first two hitters walked before Tampa Bay closer Bryan Baker left the game with an injury. The Rangers played small ball and generated a run on Diaz’s sac fly, but Foscue popped up.
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“At this point of the season, it’s about winning games,” Schumaker said. “Within one run, we felt good about keeping it there and giving ourselves a chance to score one run in the ninth. It’s hard to score two against a closer. It was an exciting game, but, you know, we’re trying to win games.”
They are trying. Just not particularly succeeding. Especially after they fall behind.