The Cubs met up with an AL West team in their second series of 2026 and took two of three from an Angels club that has fallen into the basement in their division.<\/p>\n
This weekend they\u2019ll visit another AL West team, the Rangers.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
For more on the Rangers, here\u2019s Adam Morris, manager of our SB Nation Rangers<\/a> site Lone Star Ball<\/a>.<\/p>\n Things are less than ideal for the Texas Rangers<\/a> currently.\u00a0The team is three games under .500, and Wyatt Langford<\/a> and Josh Smith<\/a> are both on the injured list, and yes, if you check the B-R page, both players have gotten off to bad starts, but Langford, in particular, profiles as one of the Rangers top players, so his absence hurts the lineup.<\/p>\n On the other hand, the Rangers have played either the most difficult schedule so far this season, or the second most difficult schedule, depending on where you look, and are just two games behind the Northern California Athletics in the American League West, so, you know, things could be worse.<\/p>\n The Rangers will have the Vandy Boys \u2014 Kumar Rocker<\/a> and Jack Leiter<\/a> \u2014 starting the first two games of the series.\u00a0Each has been up-and-down this season, looking great at times and looking awful at other times, often in the\u00a0same game.<\/p>\n Rocker is a sinker\/slider guy who has a changeup that is still a work in progress, and who generates a ton of ground balls.\u00a0His slider is his best pitch, and when he\u2019s on, he throws it for strikes enough to keep hitters from sitting on his sinker.\u00a0When he\u2019s not on, he struggles to throw strikes and hitters will tee off on his sinker.\u00a0 Rocker is terrible at holding on runners, and the Rangers catchers aren\u2019t great at throwing out baserunners, so the Cubs will almost certainly look to run on him.\u00a0Base stealers are 5 for 5 against him this season, and 17 for 17 against him in his major league career.<\/p>\n Leiter, on the other hand, relies on a high-speed, high-spin fastball that generates swings-and-misses.\u00a0 He introduced a kick-change last year that he\u2019s used much more this year \u2014 its his second most frequently thrown pitch \u2014 and, unusually, he throws it frequently to righthanded hitters as well as lefties.\u00a0It can be a devastating pitch, but he struggles to command it \u2014 if you look at the heat map for the changeup, you will see that the pitch can end up anywhere from above the batter\u2019s head to hitting the ground 4 feet in front of the plate.\u00a0When Leiter is on, he racks up Ks and gets a lot of pop ups and lazy fly balls.\u00a0When he\u2019s not on, his pitch count gets out of control early on, and he gives up a lot of loud contact in the air.<\/p>\n Jacob deGrom<\/a> is slated to pitch the finale.\u00a0You might have heard of him before.\u00a0He\u2019s pretty good.\u00a0He\u2019s no longer \u201cbest pitcher in baseball\u201d Jacob deGrom, but he is still \u201clegitimate No. 1 starter\u201d Jacob deGrom.\u00a0 The biggest issue with deGrom is that he\u2019s much more homer-prone since coming back from Tommy John surgery \u2014 he\u2019s allowed just 13 runs this year, but 6 home runs, and allowed 26 homers last year.<\/p>\n The bullpen is a collection of no-names, but has performed quite well so far this season.\u00a0Manager Skip Schumaker has tended to go with Jakob Junis<\/a> and Jacob Latz<\/a> as his primary options late in games with a lead.<\/p>\n The offense has been erratic.\u00a0Corey Seager<\/a> is off to a slow (for him) start, though he\u2019s still got a 114 OPS+.\u00a0 Brandon Nimmo<\/a> and Josh Jung<\/a> are off to great starts offensively, though Nimmo is nursing a hamstring issue that has limited him of late \u2014 he\u2019s missed a couple of games over the past week, and DH\u2019d when he has played.\u00a0With Smith and Langford out, the Rangers have had to use Andrew McCutchen<\/a> \u2014 on the roster as a platoon DH \u2014 in the outfield some, and put Joc Pederson<\/a> in right field against the Yankees<\/a> on Thursday, something we hope we will never have to see again.<\/p>\n Globe Life Park played very hitter-friendly in 2023, when the Rangers won the World Series, but since the start of the 2025 has played as an extreme pitchers park due to the ball not carrying well at all.\u00a0A ball off the bat that seems like it should land 10 rows back will end up caught on the warning track.\u00a0Don\u2019t be surprised if we have a low-scoring series.<\/p>\n Fun facts<\/p>\n The Cubs have a winning record against the Rangers all-time, with 14 wins and 13 losses. But they are 5-7 at Texas, where they have won only one of four series, two games to one in 2010. They lost two of three in their two subsequent visits, both to start seasons, in 2019 and 2024.<\/p>\n This is the first of three straight series on the road for the Cubs, their only three-team road trip this season. However, the third series will be in Chicago<\/a>, on the South Side vs. the White Sox<\/a>. They will play three games at Atlanta<\/a> before that one.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n (Courtesy BCB\u2019s JohnW53)<\/p>\n Probable pitching matchups<\/p>\n Friday: Ben Brown<\/a>, RHP (1-1, 2.10 ERA, 1.013 WHIP, 2.71 FIP) vs. Kumar Rocker, RHP (1-3, 4.71 ERA, 1.465 WHIP, 3.98 FIP)<\/p>\n