After an exciting 5-4 series-opening victory, the Texas Rangers will be back in action on Saturday against the Detroit Tigers.
After an exciting 5-4 series-opening victory on Friday night, the Texas Rangers will be back in action on Saturday for the second of a three-game set against the Detroit Tigers.
Texas will be aiming for its third straight win and will have the chance to push its record above .500 on the season.
Fans looking to tune into Saturday night’s game will do so a little differently as the Rangers will be in front of a national audience on Fox.
The radio side of things will remain the same as 105.3 The Fan will still have the call in the DFW area.
Kumar Rocker will take the mound for the Rangers. He enters play with a 1-2 record and a 3.38 ERA.
Rocker comes into Saturday with some positive momentum after posting back-to-back quality starts for the first time in his young big league career.
In his last start against the Athletics, Rocker went six innings, allowing just two runs with three strikeouts.
The Rangers will need Rocker to give them some length in this one after MacKenzie Gore went just 3 2/3 innings and Texas used five relievers to cover 5 1/3 innings.
Offensively, the Rangers will match up against Tigers starter Keider Montero, who enters play with a 1-2 record and 4.00 ERA on the season.
In his last start against the Cincinnati Reds, Montero went five innings, allowing five hits and three runs.
No one on the Rangers roster has faced Montero more than five times, so it won’t be a familiar matchup for Texas hitters.
The Rangers did, however, get a decent look at the Tigers' bullpen on Friday night as Detroit used four relievers in the game.
Once again, it’ll be interesting to see if Rangers manager Skip Schumaker elects to put Brandon Nimmo back in the lineup on Saturday.
Nimmo left Friday night’s game with hamstring tightness for the second consecutive game. Schumaker said that Nimmo wanted to remain in the game, but given the cold weather in Detroit, the team saw no reason to push it further.
If Nimmo in fact does not play, then we could once again see Ezequiel Duran in right field and Josh Smith back at second base.
Originally, Saturday’s game was one the Rangers thought they might have left fielder Wyatt Langford for, but after suffering a setback on a rehab assingment, that will not be the case.
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