The Texas Rangers will look to avoid the sweep and pick up a huge, much-needed win over the New York Mets on Thursday afternoon.
For the final time in the regular season in 2026, the Texas Rangers will play baseball at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
Texas closes its regular season home slate with another huge showdown against the New York Mets.
The Rangers will look to avoid the sweep with a win as they come into play tied for first place in the American League West despite having a record of just 78-80.
Obviously, a record two games below .500 would almost never have a team in the hunt for a division title with just four games left, but Texas is still in it, and they need to find a way to capitalize on the opportunity in front of them.
Rocker gets start for Rangers
First pitch for Thursday’s home regular-season finale is slated for 1:35 p.m. Those not planning on heading out to Globe Life can catch all the action on Rangers Sports Network and on 105.3 The Fan.
On the mound for Texas will be Kumar Rocker, who will make his 27th start (30th appearance) of the season. Rocker was a former Mets draft pick, but he did not end up signing with New York, making way for the Rangers to draft him the following year.
This season, Rocker has posted a 5-11 record with a 4.47 ERA, a 1.42 WHIP, and 134 strikeouts in 143 innings.
In each of these last couple of starts, Rocker has shown some promising signs but just hasn’t been able to put together a complete outing.
Texas will hope for some sort of length from Rocker today as the pitching staff continues to run thin.
On the other side of the ball, Rangers hitters will be tasked with facing Mets rookie left-hander Zac Thornton.
Langford, Seager need to get going
Coming into play, Thornton is 5-5 with a 3.40 ERA, a 1.15 WHIP, and 59 strikeouts in 79.1 innings throughout his first year in the big leagues.
Anything that the Rangers do offensively will start with Wyatt Langford and Corey Seager who, despite needing to get going after struggling mightily through the first two games of the series, have to get it going.
There’s no doubt that opposing teams circle them on their lineup card, but Rangers manager Skip Schumaker acknowledged after the game on Wednesday that the top of the lineup has to carry the offense. It’ll be key to get those two going if Texas wants to win their first division title since 2016.
