After playing 16 of their first 22 games on the road, the Texas Rangers are looking forward to starting a nine-game homestand Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Texas lost two of three to the Seattle Mariners over the weekend, while Pittsburgh captured a home series 2-1 over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The Rangers completed their 10-game trip against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Athletics and Seattle with a 4-6 record after losing 5-2 to the Mariners on Sunday. Texas trailed 5-0 before scoring twice in the seventh inning.
“It would have been nice to finish .500 on this trip,” Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. “It would have been nice to win today, for sure. But it was not a horrible road trip, and we played some tough teams. It doesn’t feel like we’ve been at home the entire year.”
The Rangers will be happy to leave Seattle after another rough experience at T-Mobile Park, where they are 10-40 since the start of the 2020 season.
Mariners starter Bryan Woo limited Texas to two runs on four hits over seven innings.
“He just kind of beat us in the zone,” Schumaker said. “We had some good at-bats, some hard hits, but just nothing really to show for it. He was just on the attack, and we couldn’t move the ball forward like we wanted to.”
The Rangers are monitoring the status of reliever Robert Garcia, who had an MRI on his sore left shoulder and will likely be unavailable for Tuesday’s game.
Pittsburgh enters the series on a high note after Mitch Keller pitched seven strong innings in a 6-3 win over Tampa Bay on Sunday.
The Pirates trailed 2-1 before scoring three runs in the fifth on four hits, including Bryan Reynolds’ two-run single.
“I love when we play clean baseball and play winning baseball,” Pittsburgh manager Don Kelly said. “I think, in that moment, in that inning, to be able to bunt and move guys and steal, we need to play like that. We need to play aggressively and do the things that we need to do to be able to win the game.”
Tuesday’s series opener features a pair of right-handed starters as Pittsburgh’s Carmen Mlodzinski (1-0, 1.77 ERA) faces the Rangers’ Kumar Rocker (0-1, 4.30).
Mlodzinski, 27, followed opener Mason Montgomery and pitched six shutout innings with two hits allowed in a 2-0 win over the Washington Nationals last Wednesday.
The outing marked another step forward for Mlodzinski, who has not allowed an earned run in his last 13 innings.
“Carmen came in and was really, really good,” Kelly said after Wednesday’s game. “It looked like everything was a little better synced up delivery-wise. It was in the zone. Stuff was electric.”
Mlodzinski is making his second career appearance against Texas. He pitched 2 1/3 scoreless innings in relief against the Rangers on June 21, 2025.
The Rangers will counter with Rocker, who gave up two runs on four hits while striking out six over 4 2/3 innings in a no-decision versus the Athletics last Wednesday.
Rocker, 26, battled control issues with four walks allowed. He has issued a total of seven walks across his first three starts covering 14 2/3 innings.
Brandon Lowe is 3-for-5 with a home run against Rocker, who yielded two runs over 5 1/3 innings in a 3-2 win over the Pirates on June 21, 2025.
–Field Level Media
