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Los Angeles Angels Jo Adell (7) rounds the bases after hitting a home run as Texas Rangers pitcher MacKenzie Gore (1) looks away during the fourth inning of a baseball game at Globe Life Field, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Arlington. (Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News)
ARLINGTON — After a month of being America’s guests, the Rangers came back home to find a precious gift awaiting them on the porch of Globe Life Field: Six straight games against losers to start a long stretch at home.
If only the Rangers knew what to do with gifts.
After dropping a series against Detroit, the Rangers find themselves in danger of doing the same against MLB’s worst team, the woeful, woebegone, wayward Los Angeles Angels.
In a 13-1 loss that could be described as demoralizing or embarrassing — choose your fighting words — MacKenzie Gore couldn’t get out of his own way and an offense missing Josh Jung, in addition to the usual suspects (Corey Seager and Wyatt Langford) managed a single through the first five innings. And on that play, Josh Smith was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double.
“There weren’t a lot of positives today,” manager Skip Schumaker said, “on either side of the ball.”
It was not a good night. Even with a pretty large and very fleshy tarps off contingent urging them on, the Rangers were as flat as a crepe. It was the kind of night where you looked at the roving ‘tarps off’ fan contingents and maybe wanted to say: “Maybe tomorrow.”
Though, that’s no guarantee. Especially when the Rangers play losing teams. This is a .500 team. Again. They are 46-46 for the year. They are 163-163 going back to two years ago this date. They find ways to simply hang around even.
At almost any snapshot of the season, what stands out is the consistent lack of consistency. On Tuesday, the Rangers rallied late with five eighth-inning runs to potentially set a tone for the series and create some momentum. On Wednesday, they gave it all back.
“Today was just one of those tough days, quite honestly,” Schumaker said. “There haven't been too many of those games this year, so I'm not going to really [harp] on that. I think we're going to come back and have a chance to win tomorrow. I think that will be the true test and a sign of a winning team, and not a .500 team. Winning the series after a tough day like today, those are the days you come back and look forward to after a tough night.”
The way the Rangers are hanging around .500 this year is perhaps the most maddening way. Because everything is backwards. They play pretty well against good competition and fumble against losers. They play remarkably well on the road, but stumble at home. Go figure. The Rangers are 16-20 against teams with losing records, including 1-4 against the Angels. At Globe Life Field, they are 21-21.
In July, with 16 of their first 20 games at home and an application for a genuine playoff race waiting to be filled out, winning at home is essential. Doesn’t matter how. Just matters that they win. Current record in this stretch: 2-3. They aren’t cutting it.
Everything else is just details.
But the details go like this: Gore, the Rangers’ big offseason acquisition who came with lots of promise as a top-of-the-rotation type of starter, continued to falter under the weight of big innings. Gore allowed a first-inning run to put the Rangers in an immediate hole, then allowed Jo Adell five RBIs over homers in consecutive at-bats in the fourth and five innings. At one stretch, Gore allowed eight of 11 Angels to reach base.
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Texas Rangers pitcher MacKenzie Gore (1) talks with pitching coach Jordan Tiegs (83) as catcher Elias Díaz (35) looks on during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Arlington. (Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News)
By the time he was done at the end of the fifth, the Rangers trailed 7-0. Gore’s ERA had risen to 4.72, the sixth-highest among qualifying starters in the majors. That’s not what the Rangers had in mind when they sent five prospects to Washington for him in January. In a team-high 19 starts, he’s managed to get through six innings only seven times.
“I do think MacKenzie's going to have a really good second half,” said Schumaker, whose relationship with the pitcher dates back to when both were in San Diego. “I just believe in the kid and the stuff. Sometimes these big innings have haunted him, so he's got to figure out how to minimize the damage in those.”
The offense wasn’t of any use either. For the second straight night, they managed only a single through five innings. On Tuesday, they rallied against the Angels’ dreadful bullpen to pull out an 8-3 win.
On Wednesday, the “rally” consisted of a Kyle Higashioka eighth-inning homer that momentarily prevented the game from matching the Angels’ biggest winning margin of the season. Then Higashioka went out and pitched the ninth. Good news: He became just the fourth Rangers “pitcher” to ever homer in a game. Bad news: He allowed two runs in the ninth to make it the worst beating the Angels have laid on anybody this year.
By the time the bottom of the ninth rolled around, even the tarps off crowd had given up and headed home.
That’s how bad it was: The Rangers couldn’t even hold on to shirtless dudes desperate to wave and scream. There is momentum to be had and the Rangers past the season’s midpoint still haven’t shown a grasp of how to seize upon it.
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Fans cheer during the eighth inning of a baseball game between the Texas Rangers and the Los Angeles Angels at Globe Life Field, Wednesday, July 8, 2026, in Arlington. (Chitose Suzuki/The Dallas Morning News)
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