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Texas Rangers pitcher Peyton Gray (75) delivers during the sixth inning of a baseball game against the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field, Friday, July 24, 2026, in Arlington. (Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News)
ARLINGTON — Rangers left-handed pitcher Jacob Latz recorded a save in Friday's series opener, and for the first time this month, didn't need to throw multiple innings to do so.
It wasn't for the lack of an opportunity.
"You know I wanted to," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said with a laugh, "but you can't do it every time."
You don't need to do it every time if the collective bullpen functions as ideally designed, and in Friday's 5-4 win vs. the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field, it did. The quintet of Peyton Gray, Jakob Junis, Tyler Alexander, Cole Winn and Latz combined for four scoreless relief innings in the series opener and, in turn, might've set themselves up well for the remainder of the weekend.
The five were uber-efficient, recorded an above-average 80% strike rate, walked zero batters and weren't run into the ground with three games left to play this series against their division rival. Gray threw 12 of his 14 pitches for strikes in a scoreless sixth inning, Junis threw 6 of his 6 pitches for strikes in a scoreless seventh, and in the eighth, Alexander and Winn combined to throw 11 of their 14 pitches for strikes.
"We have to throw strikes, let our defense play, keep the ball in the yard, don't give free passes," Schumaker said. "They were on the attack, it was strike one a lot as well, they got ahead, they stayed ahead and they finished. I thought it was fantastic."
Latz, whose 10 multiple-inning saves are by far the most in the league this season, only threw 21 pitches in the ninth inning and should theoretically be available for Saturday's game if needed. The 30-year-old has pitched in back-to-back games eight times this season but only twice when he threw multiple innings in the first leg. On average this season, after games in which Latz has pitched multiple innings of relief, he's had roughly two-and-a-half days off afterwards.
"I was very excited that Skip trusted me to go the eighth," Alexander, who started Wednesday's loss vs. the Chicago White Sox, said, "because you see a guy like Latz, who's consistently getting two-inning saves, it means he's going to be down for a day, right? If he's going one inning, it means he can pitch more often, it means he can get more saves, so it feels good for us other guys in the bullpen to be able to pick up that slack a little bit in the eighth."
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