{"id":121464,"date":"2025-06-21T23:24:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T23:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/121464\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T23:24:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T23:24:13","slug":"the-texas-rangers-series-against-pittsburgh-showcases-why-outfield-defense-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/121464\/","title":{"rendered":"The Texas Rangers\u2019 series against Pittsburgh showcases why outfield defense matters"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2014 Outfield defense matters. Just ask the Texas Rangers<\/a> and Pittsburgh Pirates. <\/p>\n

Or, maybe, only ask the Rangers. The Pirates might not be the best judge of it at the moment. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of times, when you\u2019re not having success at the plate, you can carry it out there on defense,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy<\/a> said after the Rangers\u2019 6-2 win Friday at PNC Park<\/a>. \u201cThey haven\u2019t done that the whole season. They played hard out there and they\u2019ve kept their focus.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pirates missed that memo and sunk themselves into a deficit in both Friday and Saturday\u2019s games because of poor outfield defense. Center fielder Oneil Cruz whiffed on a groundball and allowed Josh Smith to score from first base on a Sam Haggerty single in the first inning of Friday\u2019s game. On Saturday, in the top of the third, left fielder Adam Frazier did the same and let Ezequiel Duran score the game\u2019s first run as the ball rolled all the way to the warning track. <\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

That doesn\u2019t include a hard-hit Marcus Semien flyball in Friday\u2019s game that was ruled a triple despite the fact that Pittsburgh left fielder Alexander Canario slipped and fell after he attempted to field the ball. <\/p>\n

The Rangers, who\u2019ve been one of baseball\u2019s defensive teams this season, couldn\u2019t relate to the miscues. Take Friday\u2019s win for proof. Right fielder Adolis Garc\u00eda made improbable diving catches in right field in back-to-back innings to keep the Pirates off the basepaths. <\/p>\n

He dove and made a catch on the run to rob Spencer Horwitz of a single in the bottom of the second inning and made an identical grab in the bottom of the third to steal a base hit from Adam Frazier. The first carried a catch percentage of 30% and the second carried one of 50%. Garc\u00eda earned himself a spot on SportsCenter\u2019s top plays reel Friday night for his efforts. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been playing great defense behind me,\u201d said Texas right-hander Jacob deGrom, who was on the mound for both catches. \u201cI\u2019m thankful for that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda entered play Saturday ranked first among all outfielders leaguewide with 13 defensive runs saved. He ranks in the 86th percentile of outs above average, according to Baseball Savant, and has made just a single error in right field in 71 games. <\/p>\n

He won a Gold Glove two seasons ago but was slowed down by a knee injury last season and regressed into a net negative defender. <\/p>\n

\u201cI saw it from day one in spring training,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cThe hop to his step, the life he\u2019s got in his legs, the way he\u2019s running. He\u2019s bouncing back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nathan Eovaldi checks off potential final box of rehab, could start for Rangers next week<\/a>Rangers first baseman Jake Burger (oblique strain) placed on injured list<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Outfield defense matters. Just ask the Texas Rangers and Pittsburgh Pirates. Or, maybe, only ask the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121465,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[3418,5,3417,3321,4,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-121464","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-adolis-garcia","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-brief","11":"tag-bruce-bochy","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-rangers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-rangers","17":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114723937922295444","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121464","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121464"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121464\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121464"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121464"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121464"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}