Texas Rangers pitcher Trevor Williams (51) reacts with catcher Elias DÃaz after defeating the Toronto Blue Jays during a baseball game Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Julio Cortez/AP Photo/Julio Cortez
ARLINGTON — Somebody – the bald sportswriter will remain anonymous – thought it cute to ask Rangers manager Skip Schumaker on Friday if Trevor Williams was still on the roster.
After all, the Rangers have churned through relievers lately like a food processor on high, yet Williams remained on the shelf for more than a week. Seemed odd.
Schumaker responded to the question politely.
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Saved his real answer for the game.
On a night when the Rangers matched their season high in walks and made every one of Toronto’s three errors sting in what appeared to be a lopsided, 7-1 win, nothing stood out larger than the performance of a reliever signed from free agency who pitched four scoreless innings to lock down a win and save the beleaguered bullpen.
Williams, appearing for the first time since Sept. 9, pitched the final four innings to give almost everyone a night off and give the Rangers a win that pushed them back into a tie with Houston atop the AL West with eight games to play.
How’s that for an answer?
“It was a good question,” Schumaker said slyly after the game about the tongue-in-cheek question. “Kind of showed you he still was.”
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More seriously, though, not even Schumaker thought Williams was the plan when he needed a handful of innings for a fourth straight game. When Kumar Rocker faltered in the fifth by walking the first two batters he faced with a four-run lead, Schumaker knew he was going to have to get through four innings with a bullpen that had already had to pick up at least four innings of relief for the fourth straight day.
Schumaker has tried to manage his pitching one day at a time through this stretch run, putting off worrying about the next day’s starter until the previous game was complete. He’s now having to worry about the next inning until the current one is complete.
On Friday, he said five relievers were unavailable, leaving him with Tyler Alexander, Williams, just-recalled Michel Otañez and maybe one of Jordan Montgomery or Chase Silseth.
So he asked Alexander to get him through the fifth, which he did, then turned the ball over to Williams to face four consecutive right-handed hitters in the sixth. He believed Williams was best set up for success against a string of righties. The right “pocket” presented itself. But he didn’t know how deep he could reach into the pocket. He’d worry about the seventh once the sixth was completed.
“That’s what I was thinking: How am I going to get through the rest of this game?” Schumaker said. “But Trevor kept going quick inning after quick inning. It really helped. You are just going through all these scenarios. There was a lot going on. We didn’t have anybody else available to go more than one inning, so you are just counting outs and the fact that he got all of them was huge.”
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Williams was released by Washington on Aug. 31 and signed with the Rangers the next day. The Rangers considered him a piece capable of going one or two innings. Four? He hadn’t pitched more than 3 1/3 innings this season and that was in a mop-up role in a loss to the Rangers.
“The bullpen has been putting their hearts out there for the last week or two,” said Williams, who watched the bullpen blow a pair of three-run leads in the nine days between pitching. “Guys are asked to go multiple [innings] and back-to-back days and you know it’s tough.
“The game is kind of dictating it. It’s all hands on deck right now. My role here is to give the bullpen a break. I’m glad that I did that today. Those guys have been picking each other up all year. I’m glad I could do a small part of that and pick them up today.”
Picking themselves up was kind of the theme of the day. The Rangers had lost a three-run lead on Thursday to Boston and put themselves in another predicament. They do not hold tiebreakers with Houston, the team they are pursuing in the AL West, or Chicago, currently holding the third wild card spot.
But against Cy Young co-favorite Dylan Cease, they came out with an extremely disciplined approach and took six walks over the first four innings. Two of those walks were the catalyst to a four-run second-inning that was aided by a Toronto error. It forced Cease out of the game and forced the Blue Jays to use five relievers over the remainder of the game.
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In short, it flipped the script. As the Rangers head into the weekend and those final eight games, they got some rest for their bullpen; Toronto will be weary.
So, yes, Trevor Williams is still around.
And, yes, the Rangers are still very much alive in the playoff hunt.
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