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Minnesota Twins’ Luke Keaschall, left, steals second base against Texas Rangers second baseman Ezequiel Duran during the fourth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n
LM Otero\/AP Photo\/LM Otero<\/p>\n
ARLINGTON\u00a0\u2014 The first inning was lopsided, the starter exited early, the offense finished hitless in leverage moments and another team with a record under .500 left victorious.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Please, if you could, check your Rangers<\/a>-branded bingo\u00a0cards.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of you must\u2019ve had this one.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Rangers, who lost 9-3 to the Minnesota Twins at Globe Life Field Thursday afternoon, have already seen some combination of that exact alignment of circumstances on theirs. Thursday\u2019s loss \u2014 in which right-handed pitcher Jack Leiter allowed four first-inning runs and secured a fifth loss in the team\u2019s last six games \u2014 was the fourth time in the last seven days that the Rangers allowed multiple runs in the game\u2019s first frame and failed to rally from the deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n Their 7.05 ERA in the first inning of games this season is the highest in baseball.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe first inning, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s becoming a thing mentally, maybe, but it\u2019s something that we\u2019ve got to continue to address,\u201d Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. \u201cWe\u2019re playing from behind too often, and it\u2019s tough to play catch-up.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s statistically a hapless pursuit if this team\u2019s body of work can be taken as proof. They are now 0-15 when they allow multiple first-inning runs and\u00a0 \u00a0are a bottom-third offense leaguewide when behind in games. Three late home runs hit by left fielder Wyatt Langford,\u00a0shortstop Ezequiel Duran and pinch hitter Justin Foscue\u00a0represented their greatest attempt at a rally Thursday afternoon. They finished 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position and, in the three-game series, finished 0 for 18 in those situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Schumaker acknowledged that it\u2019s difficult for a lineup to be on the attack and aggressive when stuck with an immediate deficit. The intent when behind becomes to\u00a0see pitches, wear on the opponent\u2019s starter and \u201cgive the starting pitcher and your defense a little bit of a break by having some quality at-bats.\u201d<\/p>\n Texas Rangers pitcher Jack Leiter throws during the first inning of a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins, Thursday, June 18, 2026, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo\/LM Otero)<\/p>\n LM Otero\/AP Photo\/LM Otero<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t put up a zero it\u2019s tough to be on the attack on the offensive side,\u201d Schumaker said. \u201cOur starters have really good stuff, they\u2019re really good pitchers and the strength of our ballclub is based around our starting pitching. We have really, really quality starters. Putting up a zero in the first or second inning isn\u2019t some crazy thought, and that\u2019s why I think it\u2019s become a mental thing more than anything, and maybe even on the offensive side, too, if we give up a couple.\u201d<\/p>\n They\u2019ll argue that it shouldn\u2019t be a crazy thought to erase that marginal of a deficit.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFour-nothing shouldn\u2019t be something you\u2019re scared of,\u201d Rangers first baseman Jake Burger, the only everyday position player in the clubhouse when it opened after Thursday\u2019s game, said, \u201cespecially in the first frame. Now, when it gets to seven, eight, you definitely feel it more. When you\u2019re in an eight-run deficit it definitely is tough to feel like you\u2019re in the game. When you\u2019re 4-0 in the first frame, you have nine frames, there shouldn\u2019t be any panic. I know I\u2019m not. It doesn\u2019t feel like that as a collective as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n If panic isn\u2019t the correct word, then predictable, probable or premonition might suffice. The Rangers lost all three games vs. the Twins and played from behind in each because left-handed pitcher MacKenzie Gore<\/a>, right-handed pitcher Kumar Rocker<\/a> and Leiter combined to allow nine runs before their offensive counterparts took a single at-bat.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leiter allowed hard-hit singles to three of the first five Twins batters that he faced before third baseman Brooks Lee hammered a middle-middle changeup into right field for a three-run home run. He was tagged for two more runs in the fourth inning, when left fielder Trevor Larnach hit a high slider for a two-run home run, and was removed from the game before the fifth. That forced the Rangers to use four relief pitchers in the first of what is a 15-games-in-15-days stretch.\u00a0<\/p>\n The team\u2019s starters have logged five or fewer innings in nine of their 16 games this month.\u00a0Leiter, whose 5.29 ERA is the second-highest among all qualified American League starters this season, hasn\u2019t pitched more than five innings in any of his three June starts.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just not holding up my end of the bargain these last three,\u201d Leiter said. \u201cI\u2019m going to find it. I\u2019m going to figure it out, but I\u2019m definitely frustrated.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n That may qualify as the free space on this season\u2019s bingo card.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Twins’ Luke Keaschall, left, steals second base against Texas Rangers second baseman Ezequiel Duran during the fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342093,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,732,89415,87907,91249,89898],"class_list":["post-342092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-article","tag-tp-globe-life-field","tag-tp-arlington","tag-tp-jack-leiter","tag-tp-skip-schumaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n