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Texas Rangers pitcher MacKenzie Gore gets a hand in the dugout after the eighth inning of a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Globe Life Field on Tuesday, May 12, 2026, in Arlington. (Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News)
ARLINGTON – The Rangers presented their manager on Tuesday night with one of those theoretical questions the great philosophers used to debate while wearing togas with their baseball caps.
In the course of a season, what stands as the more important development: An offense that finally figured out how to score runs at home, or the pitcher you traded five guys for pitching a career high in innings on a night after you had to use all arms on deck in a bullpen game.
“Yes,” Skip Schumaker said after a 7-4 win over Arizona, choosing to pick neither, but rather, both.
OK, for a night, we’ll let him off the theoretical hook.
Because for both the short and long-term, both MacKenzie Gore’s eight-inning outing and an offense that finally showed it’s capable of scoring a touchdown (including a Brandon Aubrey PAT) worth of runs at its cavernous home have positive implications.
“MacKenzie needed that and we needed that,” Schumaker said. “He's been working really hard to try to get his mechanics right, to get his fastball where it needs to be. And his execution was great. And his curveball was excellent. So he had kind of a North-South thing going.
“So he really pitched tonight, which was great, but the offense getting seven runs; it was a good day, because there's a lot of guys that have been fighting themselves a little bit, and for them to get multiple hits, they feel good about it and that might be the biggest thing, hopefully, going into tomorrow.”
Tomorrow being the series finale when the Rangers, with a refreshed bullpen, can win another home series and close out the homestand with a winning record. And, you know, maybe build some offensive momentum.
To that point, a little shake of the lineup produced big results. Joc Pederson, hitting leadoff for the first time this year, started the game with a homer under an open sky, a rarity at Globe Life Field. Maybe the atmosphere helped keep the ball fair. Ezequiel Duran, moved back down to the bottom half of the lineup, had three hits and a walk. Jake Burger, benched for two games over the weekend, and in a 2-for-22 skid, had three hits.
And maybe everybody will take a breath, relax and just play because it often feels like those watching this team wonder from day to day when – or if - the offense is going to arrive.
Gore, though, was acquired for five prospects in the winter with the idea he’d give the Rangers an ace-caliber starter in the middle of the rotation, which would perhaps also take some pressure off the offense. He’s pitched adequately but still registered had only one quality start and got bogged down in high pitch counts and walks. It was largely the story of his career: Great stuff but rarely went deep in games. Forget a complete game, he’d never pitched eight innings before Tuesday. His career long had been seven innings and his most efficient pitch count among those six outings had been 93. He threw just 95 pitches on Tuesday, walking only one and striking out five. And it couldn’t have come at a better moment, considering the Rangers had used five of their eight relievers in a bullpen game after Nathan Eovaldi was scratched.
“He stayed on the attack the entire night,” pitching coach Jordan Tiegs said. “He didn't deviate or nitpick. I think the talk all week had just been ‘you've been better than the results; it's been one inning every game.’
“What happens in that one inning? Do we run away from the zone? Do we try to do more than we can, things like that? It's just making sure that each pitch, we're just staying in the same mindset, same commitment to each pitch and one pitch at a time.”
Gore did not get rattled after giving up a game-tying homer in the second inning to Ildemaro Vargas. He could have. He walked the next hitter. Then he retired 13 in a row.
“I want to go deep in every game,” Gore said. “I think with the way that things have gone the past few outings, there's been a lot of work to get better. And I don't think I was necessarily great stuff wise, today, but I made enough pitches with heaters and we got a big lead.”
So, maybe the stuff wasn’t “great,” but the results were. And it couldn’t have come at a better time.
It was just the answer Skip Schumaker and the Rangers needed.
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