ARLINGTON -- The Rangers were blanked by the Dodgers, 1-0, on Sunday afternoon, dropping their first series at Globe Life Field in 2025.
It was the third time that the Rangers have been shut out this season, including the series opener against the Dodgers on Friday night.
The Rangers' starting pitching this homestand was electric, posting a 1.64 ERA (7 ER/38 1/3 IP) with 41 strikeouts to just seven walks as they finished 4-2 against the Angels and Dodgers. The two losses were the shutouts this weekend.
Here are three takeaways from the Rangers¡¯ series loss to the Dodgers this weekend:
Tommy John duo is good
In 2024, the Rangers had a pair of veteran starting pitchers continuing rehab back from Tommy John surgeries performed in May of ¡®23. Jacob deGrom was the big name, and he was tagged with the loss on Friday night after allowing just one run in seven innings.
Tyler Mahle was the other. The right-hander did not factor into the decision of Sunday¡¯s loss after tossing seven shutout innings for just the third time in his career. He held the Dodgers to 2-for-23 at the plate, while also issuing three walks.
At the conclusion of Sunday¡¯s game, Mahle led the Majors in opponent batting average (.112), H/9 (3.38) and 0.68 ERA (2 ER/26.2 IP) among all starting pitchers with a minimum of four starts.
Mahle's the 13th pitcher with an ERA of 0.68 or lower through their first five starts (min. 20 IP) of a season in the Wild Card era (since 1995). He¡¯s also got the lowest ERA for a Rangers pitcher through his first five starts of a season in franchise history.
¡°That's why we signed him,¡± manager Bruce Bochy said. ¡°We know how good he is when he's healthy. He's everything we thought he would be. He's just got great game awareness and a feel for pitching out there. He has an amazing ability to make a pitch when he has to, too. That¡¯s a really good lineup and he just did a terrific job.¡±
Offense scuffles
This weekend was as good of a starting pitching matchup as anybody sees in April. Yoshinobu Yamamoto came out on top over Jacob deGrom on Friday. Nathan Eovaldi and Roki Sasaki allowed two runs each on Saturday. The Tyler duo -- Mahle and Glasnow -- both had scoreless offerings on Sunday.
So does that spell more trouble for the Rangers' offense -- which scored a total of four runs in the series, all on Saturday -- or is it just a testament to the quality of starting pitching?
It¡¯s obviously a bit of both, especially considering the Rangers' struggles throughout much of this young season. Against the Dodgers, Texas went 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, with the one hit being Adolis Garc¨ªa¡¯s walk-off homer on Saturday.
¡°It's fair to say we gotta start getting some runs on the board,¡± Bochy said. ¡°That's what you take away from this. I thought this would be a low scoring series with the starters both teams had. We've been doing a great job of finding ways to win games like that. We gotta keep pushing here. ¡ Sure, you'd like to see more runs. But I keep saying it, they'll come out of it. We¡¯ve got a lot of baseball left, and guys are still trying to get in their groove. They're too good not to get that consistency going.¡±
Joc's struggles continue
Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson is 0-for-last-38 and 2-for-51 over his last 15 games, to drop from an average of .250 to .055. It¡¯s the second-longest hitless drought by a Ranger in franchise history (since 1972), behind Justin Foscue¡¯s 0-for-39 span in 2024.
With Wyatt Langford back in the lineup on Sunday, Bochy gave Pederson an off-day.
¡°He's been around long enough to know that you're going to have streaks like this,¡± Bochy said of Pederson. ¡°You have to deal with adversity in this game, and I'm sure he's done it before. The best thing we can do is stay behind him. He's a really good hitter. He's going to be a big part of this offense.
¡°This dude is going to be helping us a lot this year, believe me. He feels good. You know the stretch that he's in, sure, that's not good. It's always going to raise eyebrows, it doesn't matter who you are. But I'm not concerned.¡±