ARLINGTON — Call it a ride share program. Early Friday afternoon, rookie Cody Freeman picked up his first pro roommate, rookie Dustin Harris, at his hotel and got him to the ballpark. Friday night, Harris picked up Freeman. And the rest of the Rangers.
Harris’ two-out, two-strike bouncer that skipped over the glove of sprawled Houston first baseman Christian Walker gave the Rangers a 4-3 12-inning walkoff win over Houston. The winning run? Scored by Freeman.
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It was a fitting finish to the night — a pair of rookies combining for the game’s biggest moment — to encapsulate the Rangers’ crazy mad scramble back into both the AL West and wild card races. Speaking of that race, the Rangers now trail sinking Seattle by just a half game for the final wild card spot and the Astros by four for the division title.
Welcome to Rookie Ball.
“We need them,” said Rangers manager Bruce Bochy afterward, smiling like a proud grandpa, which, come to think of it, isn’t that far-fetched of a vision given the age difference. “They are coming through for us at some really big moments. They have really contributed.”
Consider just this week, for example. It was Freeman’s two-out, two-strike single to right in the ninth inning at Arizona on Monday that helped run the Rangers’ winning streak to six games. After consecutive losses that, honestly, didn’t really ding the Rangers too badly with the rest of the division flailing about, Harris rescued them again.
Texas Rangers’ Kyle Higashioka (11) and Dustin Harris, (38) celebrate with the team after Harris hit a game-winning double in the 12th inning of a baseball game against the Houston Astros Friday, Sept. 5, 2025, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Tony Gutierrez / AP
In fairness, this was a full team effort. Trade deadline acquisition Merrill Kelly gave the Rangers a seven-inning effort for his fifth consecutive quality start, picking up an injury-ravaged rotation. Jake Burger, the key offseason offensive acquisition, delivered a two-run homer in the third that gave the Rangers an early lead. And after Chris Martin allowed a game-tying homer to old nemesis Carlos Correa in the seventh, the trio of Phil Maton (another trade deadline acquisition), Shawn Armstrong and Robert Garcia, pitched four shutout innings.
Funny thing, too, because when the Rangers acquired Kelly and Maton (along with Danny Coulombe), it almost cost them Harris. To make room on the 40-man roster, Harris had been designated for assignment, but went unclaimed. It also, however, served as notice that perhaps his time and opportunity in the Rangers’ organization was running out. After an early-season audition, the Rangers instead turned to Alejandro Osuna when they needed a left-handed hitting outfielder from the minor leagues. So, first Harris was bypassed. Then he was exposed to waivers.
To his credit, after he went unclaimed, he torched the Pacific Coast League, batting .343 with a .929 OPS in the time between his DFA and his callup. He had extended his hitting streak at Round Rock to 17 games on Thursday at Albuquerque, then was told he’d be going back to the majors to replace injured Adolis García.
“This season, as a whole, has been a lot,” Harris said afterward. “There have been a lot of ups and downs already. But I’ve just used it to continuously try to learn and better myself as a player. I’ve just been trying to grind to get where I want to be. That’s how this sport is. If you aren’t producing, you aren’t going to keep a job. So, it’s just a constant effort to try to continue to put good at-bats together.”
It wasn’t the only rookie highlight of the night, either. In the ninth, Astros’ pinch runner Jacob Melton had tried to swipe second to get into scoring position, but Kyle Higashioka made a strong throw and Freeman applied a firm tag all the way through the slide. It was so firm that you could even make the case he might have nudged Melton off the bag. The call, however, stuck.
Either way, whether just holding the tag or selling the firm tag without giving away an extra little shove, it was a heady play by a rookie.
“He hasn’t been playing a lot of second,” Bochy said. “But that’s something we talk about — keep the tag on. You don’t know what’s going to happen. They may come off just a little bit, you get the call. And he did that. And, of course, when you tag, you want to tag him firmly.”
If you squinted, you might even have seen a little playful glint in the old manager’s eyes.
The rookies have given him a little extra sparkle.
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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