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Seattle Mariners designated hitter Dominic Canzone hits a three-run home run in the seventh inning during a MLB game against the Texas Rangers played at Globe Life Field, Sunday, July 26, 2026, in Arlington. (Steve Nurenberg/The Dallas Morning News)
ARLINGTON — It's increasingly clear where the Rangers need to direct their attention and resources if they do intend to buy at next week's trade deadline.
They just need to hope that what's already a hole on their roster doesn't erode into an irreparable canyon that outright halts their ability to do so.
The Rangers allowed five runs in the final three innings of a 6-4 loss vs. the Seattle Mariners at Globe Life Field Sunday afternoon, missed an opportunity to deal a significant blow in the division race and continued to delicately navigate a bullpen that is glaringly short on trusted high-leverage relievers.
"I think the bullpen, we have different guys in different lanes that have done really good, and we've had some hiccups along the way that have cost us just like everybody else," Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said. "Today the home run cost us."
Twice, to be precise, in the seventh inning. The Rangers turned to left-handed pitcher Tyler Alexander in what was then a two-run game, and after he allowed consecutive one-out hits, replaced him with right-handed pitcher Cole Winn. He promptly got center fielder Julio Rodríguez to fly out on a single pitch for the inning's second out, but in the next at-bat, he threw a splitter low in the strike zone that designated hitter Dominic Canzone pummelled for a go-ahead three-run home run after that.
Mariners left fielder Randy Arozarena hit a first-pitch cutter for a solo home run and a two-run lead on the very next pitch.
"I just left a pitch over the middle and [Canzone] just took advantage of it," Winn, who'd logged seven consecutive scoreless appearances before Sunday's loss, said. "Same thing with Randy. There's really nothing to that aside from making bad pitches and them capitalizing."
Schumaker aknowledged that Winn was their go-to right-handed option for "dirty" innings in Sunday's game, and although the 26-year-old's on-paper numbers haven't been fantastic this season, his performance with inhereted runners on base has been. Winn had allowed only 21% of all inhereted runners to score this season prior to Sunday's game, a figure better than the league average (31%), better than right-hander Peyton Gray (37%), better than right-hander Jakob Junis (57%) and better than any other realistic option that the Rangers could've used in that scenario.
"It just felt like that was the right pocket for Winn to get out of the inning," Schumaker said. "Unfortunately it didn't work out."
It didn't when Gray pitched the top of the ninth inning, either, after the suddenly crucial rookie allowed another run when Rodriguez was plunked and Canzone doubled. The Rangers' right-handed relief pitchers have a 4.79 ERA that ranks seventh-worst in baseball this season, and if you remove the work done by Junis, their second-best late-game arm this season behind only left-handed pitcher Jacob Latz, it baloons to a 5.13 ERA. In situations which FanGraphs classifies as "high leverage," the bullpen's right-handers have a 7.18 ERA, and in "medium leverage situations," where they have a 4.27 ERA, the group remains below league average.
Their left-handed relief unit has a 3.24 ERA, and though Latz is responsible for the bulk of the plus performance, Alexander's work in a number of different roles has given the Rangers a second flexible southpaw, while rookie Robby Ahlstrom has been reliable of late. He's logged six consecutive scoreless appearnaces since the All-Star break, and Sunday, he might've posted the best individual performance of the game. Ahlstrom relieved right-handed pitcher Jacob deGrom in the sixth inning with two runners on base, and despite the fact that there were no outs, he got a lineout and a pair of strikeouts to maintain what was then a two-run lead.
The righties couldn't do the same after him.
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