Texas Rangers Jake Burger (21) reacts after connecting on a 2-run home run as he rounds the basses against the Seattle Mariners in the third inning at Globe Life Field in Arlington, July 27, 2026.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON — There are two primary schools of thought that explain how the Rangers bested their bogeyman.
It could’ve been because of a well-designed game plan, as manager Skip Schumaker suggested, and a lineup that executed it. Or, it could’ve been because the law of averages are real, as designated hitter Joc Pederson posed.
“At some time,” Pederson said, “we were going to get him.”
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Oh, yeah, they got him.
The Rangers thumped right-handed pitcher George Kirby in a 7-3 win over the Mariners at Globe Life Field Monday afternoon. They scored seven runs against him. They hit four home runs off him. They chased him from the game before the fifth inning began. They rewrote what had been a troubled history against the 28-year-old who, in a dozen previous starts against the Rangers, had posted a 1.33 ERA and never allowed more than three earned runs.
“He’s dominated us for a while,” Pederson said. “I think he’s dominated quite a few people, so it’s not like he gets hit a lot, but we were able to string some really good at-bats together and put up some runs.”
Pederson jumped on Kirby’s sweeper for a leadoff home run in the bottom of the first inning, and one frame later, he hit a first-pitch sinker for a three-run home run. Shortstop Ezequiel Duran pulled a four-seam fastball into the left field seats for a leadoff home run in the third inning, and three at-bats after that, first baseman Jake Burger hit an in-the-zone sweeper into left-center field for the team’s fourth home run.
“[Hitting coach Justin] Viele has been really good at game planning and having some real confidence going into each game,” Schumaker said. “Joc Pederson starting it off, that’s always a momentum changer when you lead off with a home run, you saw the energy that he brought. Zeke Duran sees him really well, that’s one of the guys that we had a good feeling about today, and he provided a lot of offense again.”
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It further confirmed that the Rangers, contrary to popular belief, can slug the baseball at their home ballpark. They’ve now hit 58 home runs at Globe Life Field since May 1, the fourth-most by any team at their home ballpark in that span, and have seemingly ditched the theory that their stadium isn’t conducive to offense. They’d hit the second-fewest home runs at home leaguewide in the season’s first month-plus, and the seventh-fewest at home leaguewide for all of last year. Burger, who hit two home runs this series, said the team genuinely considered “bringing everybody’s bat out there and lighting them on fire” in a “Ted Lasso”-esque ritual to counter what appeared to be a vicious park effect.
“Fortunately, we didn’t have to do that,” Burger said with a laugh. “It feels like whatever they determined from an MLB or investigative standpoint, it’s working. It doesn’t feel like you have to fully get a ball to get it out. I look at my backside home run Game 1, I hit it 99 mph, and I feel like that would’ve been a fly out at the beginning of the season and all of last year. I don’t know what it is, but I like it, I’m always a fan of more balls going out of the yard.”
The league stated earlier this season that there has been “no change in the materials or manufacturing process of the baseball,” per The Athletic, although it did acknowledge that game balls have performed differently.
Have the Rangers benefited from that?
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Or, like their performance against Kirby, is it just the law of averages?
“It’s something that is one of the most confusing things ever,” Schumaker said, “but we’ll take it.”