{"id":631296,"date":"2026-03-19T05:19:27","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/631296\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T05:19:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:19:27","slug":"kumar-rocker-ends-on-high-note-josh-jung-returns-with-bang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/631296\/","title":{"rendered":"Kumar Rocker ends on high note, Josh Jung returns with bang"},"content":{"rendered":"

SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 Texas Rangers<\/a> manager Skip Schumaker acknowledged Wednesday morning that the top four he\u2019s used in \u2014 outfielder Brandon Nimmo, shortstop Corey Seager, outfielder Wyatt Langford and first baseman Jake Burger \u2014 is \u201cprobably\u201d the quartet that\u2019ll top the order once the regular season begins. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not difficult to understand why, and if Wednesday\u2019s 12-3 win vs. the Kansas City Royals at Surprise Stadium is proof, it\u2019s potentially quite potent. <\/p>\n

Seager (101 mph double) and Burger (110 mph double) combined for the team\u2019s first run in the first inning. Langford, three innings later, tore it open with a three-run home run into left field for his fifth of the spring. Seager\u2019s .814 OPS is the lowest of the lineup\u2019s top four hitters behind Burger (.928), Nimmo (1.206) and Langford (1.584). <\/p>\n

That will play. <\/p>\n

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Here are three other observations from Wednesday\u2019s game. <\/p>\n

High heat in the desert: Rangers right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker, in his last Cactus League start, allowed one run on three hits and two walks in four innings vs. the Royals. He struck out six batters and his slider generated nine swings and misses for a ludicrous 75% whiff rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cRocker was pretty electric,\u201d Schumaker said. \u201cHis slider at times was, I don\u2019t want to say unhittable, but as good as there is in the game.\u201d <\/p>\n

If there were gripes, it\u2019d be his command (he threw just 40 of his 70 pitches for strikes and average of 17.5 pitches per inning), base runners (the Royals stole three bases against him) and low changeup usage (he only threw three). Schumaker classified it as a \u201creally good outing\u201d nevertheless. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we wanted to see was foot on the gas,\u201d Schumaker said, \u201cwhich he did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s game was, notably, the hardest Rocker has thrown all spring. His fastball averaged 97.1 mph \u2014 which is more than a mile per hour after than it ran last season \u2014 and cracked 98 mph on six different occaisons. That only happened 11 times in the regular season last year. He sprayed his four-seam fastball a bit but pounded his sinker in the zone and picked up four first-pitch strikes with it. <\/p>\n

Rocker and left-hander Jacob Latz remain in competition for the fifth rotation spot<\/a> with now less than a week until opening day. <\/p>\n

Picked up where he left off: Third baseman Josh Jung, in his second game back since an adductor strain sidelined him for most of camp<\/a>, hit a 417-foot home run off of Royals right-hander Michael Wacha for his first of the spring. It was his second extra base hit in as many games after he tripled Monday vs. the Chicago White Sox<\/a> and his second of three hits Wednesday vs. the Royals. <\/p>\n

The 28-year-old swung a hot bat before his injury and is 4 for 5 with the pair of extra base hits since his return. Schumaker said last weekend that the runway Jung has left to prepare for opening day \u201cshould be enough.\u201d <\/p>\n

He\u2019s made that look accurate since. <\/p>\n

Jung and Langford hit the team\u2019s first two home runs of the night. Designated hitter Andrew McCutchen, a mid-spring signee, hit the third. The former NL MVP\u2019s first home run as a Ranger was a 375-foot three-run home run in the seventh inning. He\u2019s slashed .533\/.667\/.933 in six games and made the most of his brief opportunity to earn a roster spot<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Bullpen candidate checks a box: The Rangers were able to see right-handed pitcher Carter Baumler throw in a \u201cdirty\u201d innings Wednesday night. The Rule 5 draftee entered with one runner on and one out in the seventh innings and pitched a scoreless frame. He struck designated hitter Luca Tresh out on three pitches, advanced runner Peyton Wilson to second base on a disengagement violation and got first baseman Abraham Toro to ground out and end the frame. <\/p>\n

Baumler, who is in competition for a roster spot,<\/a> has yet to allow a run in six spring appearances. He\u2019s struck out seven batters, walked two and showed that his curveball (which racked up a whiff and a called strike Wednesday) is a real weapon if commanded.<\/p>\n

Rangers\u2019 Jack Leiter satisfied with newest pitch after heavy usage in latest spring start<\/a>Luis Curvelo\u2019s decision to turn down Venezuelan WBC team to pursue Rangers might pay off<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SURPRISE, Ariz. \u2014 Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker acknowledged Wednesday morning that the top four he\u2019s used in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2393],"tags":[5,384,395,360,4,149,185,1567,69,3240,385],"class_list":{"0":"post-631296","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-corey-seager","10":"tag-josh-jung","11":"tag-kumar-rocker","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-rangers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-texas-rangers","17":"tag-texasrangers","18":"tag-wyatt-langford"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116254157355314264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631296","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=631296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631296\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}