{"id":38583,"date":"2025-05-19T11:12:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/38583\/"},"modified":"2025-05-19T11:12:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T11:12:14","slug":"attack-of-jack-leiter-burger-bashing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/38583\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack of Jack Leiter, Burger bashing"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019re still a bit frazzled by the finish to the Texas Rangers<\/a> most-recent homestand, or at the very least don\u2019t understand how to feel after a split that felt worse than a split, consider catcher Jonah Heim\u2019s take.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we played really good baseball,\u201d Heim said Sunday afternoon after the Rangers\u2019 4-3 loss vs. the Houston Astros<\/a>. \u201cWe didn\u2019t hurt ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s right, you know. The Rangers went 5-2 on the homestand, swept the lowly Colorado Rockies, split a four-game series vs. the rival Astros<\/a> and finished the seven-game set in the same place that they began it: two games back of the Seattle Mariners in the American League West standings. <\/p>\n

Hey, Houston didn\u2019t gain any ground, either. <\/p>\n

Rangers<\/p>\n

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

It could\u2019ve gone better. It could\u2019ve gone worse, too. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s everything else that happened in the week that was. <\/p>\n

Related:Good shrouded in bad: How Rangers\u2019 latest edition of Silver Boot series was a mixed bag<\/a>Jack Attack <\/p>\n

So, before Sunday\u2019s series final vs. the Houston Astros melted down in tremendous fashion, Rangers right-handed pitcher Jack Leiter shoved<\/a>. Like, flirted-with-a-no-hitter shoved, and if he\u2019d kept his ledger clean and remained in the game, he might\u2019ve had enough gas left in the tank to go the distance. <\/p>\n

Credit his quick work. Leiter, who held Houston hitless through 6 2\/3 innings and pitched into the eighth for the first time in his big league career, elicited seven first-pitch outs vs. the Astros. That\u2019s the most any Rangers pitcher has totaled in a single start since Dane Dunning also recorded seven on July 17, 2023 vs. the Tampa Bay Rays. <\/p>\n

It was a simple combination of playing into an opponent\u2019s weakness. The Astros entered play having seen a league-worst 3.65 pitches per plate appearance. Leiter didn\u2019t dance around. Each of the seven first-pitch outs came on pitches inside the strike zone. Five came on his slider, one on his sinker and another on his fastball. It helped Leiter speed through his first six innings and let him start the seventh at just 60 pitches. <\/p>\n

\u201cMix your 0-0\u2019s and stay on the attack,\u201d Leiter said postgame. \u201cThat was kind of our plan going in and fortunately they were hitting a lot of them at guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fresh legs, ferocious defense<\/p>\n

The flyball that he tracked and caught at the 375 foot marker Saturday and the three highlight reel-worthy catches that he made Thursday are anecdotal proof that Adolis Garc\u00eda has his legs back underneath him in the outfield. <\/p>\n

His American League-best outs above average (three) and fielding run value (three) ratings in right field are statistical proof. <\/p>\n

Garc\u00eda, a Gold Glove winner two years ago, took a significant step back defensively last season and graded out as a negative defender. He spent the better part of 2024 nursing a banged up knee and was limited in the outfield because of it. Asked if he could have made any of those three impressive catches from Thursday\u2019s series opener last season, he smiled and said \u201cI don\u2019t think any one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Health is wealth this season, though, and it\u2019s led to the 32-year-old\u2019s return to the top of most major defensive statistic leaderboards. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe worked hard, personal trainer I guess, and you could see a difference in spring training the way he was running around,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. \u201cNow you\u2019re seeing it with how he\u2019s bouncing back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burger is back to bashing<\/p>\n

Rangers first baseman Jake Burger has slashed .333\/.385\/.542 in seven games since he was recalled from Triple-A Round Rock after a 10-day minor league reset. <\/p>\n

His counting stats are good. His peripherals are too. Burger, a big swinger when he\u2019s at his best, has registered an average exit velocity of 92.1 mph and a 47% hard hit percentage on 19 batted balls since his return. Those numbers are in line with his career averages (91.6 mph and 47.8%) and made better when he doesn\u2019t chase. Burger swung at just 26% of pitches outside the strike zone entering play Sunday; before his demotion, he swung at nearly 40% of pitches outside the strike zone. He entered play Sunday with a .333 batting average vs. fastballs since his return to the major leagues, too, and drove in one of the Rangers\u2019 three series finale runs with a 109.4 mph single vs. a Framber Valdez sinker in the fourth inning. <\/p>\n

Seven good games do not necessarily guarantee that all struggles are in the rearview mirror. They do however suggest that Burger\u2019s big league break \u2014 as both he and Rangers management believed and hoped it would be \u2014 was beneficial. <\/p>\n

Speaking of bashing … <\/p>\n

We threw some slightly in depth metrics your way \u2014 pitches per plate appearance, hard hit percentage, outs above average, all that jazz \u2014 in the first three sections. So, in the fourth, let\u2019s discuss something with broad appeal. <\/p>\n

Let\u2019s discuss dingers. <\/p>\n

The Rangers have a sudden affinity for them. Their 19 home runs in their last 14 games are tied for the fifth-most in baseball and the third-most in the AL during that span. Third baseman Josh Jung, whose .810 OPS is the third-best on the team, has hit five of them. <\/p>\n

It is imperative that these Rangers hit for power. Their lineup was designed to slug and slam, and when it didn\u2019t, like during the first five weeks of the regular season, the offense was one of baseball\u2019s worst. The Rangers hit just 31 home runs (13th-fewest in the league) through May 3 and scored just 105 runs (second fewest in the league). But, in their last 14 games, they\u2019ve hit those 19 home runs and scored 58 runs (the 12th-most in the league). <\/p>\n

Home runs do not necessarily equate to a top-tier offense on a one-to-one conversion basis. They certainly don\u2019t hurt, though. <\/p>\n

History lesson: New York Mets edition<\/p>\n

How good has Jacob deGrom been since he signed a five-year, $185 million deal with the Rangers prior to the 2023 season? His 2.35 ERA as a Ranger is tied for the best all-time through any starter\u2019s first 18 games in club history. <\/p>\n

Left-handed pitcher Jon Matlack \u2014 who was also an All-Star with the New York Mets before he joined the Rangers \u2014 had a 2.35 ERA in his first 18 starts of the 1978 season. The Mets traded Matlack to the Rangers prior to that season as part of a four-team trade that included Rangers Hall of Famer Tom Grieve and National Baseball Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven. <\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019re still a bit frazzled by the finish to the Texas Rangers most-recent homestand, or at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,3316,4,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-38583","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-listicle","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-rangers","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-texas-rangers","15":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114534203202837820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38583","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=38583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}