The Texas Rangers are back in action at Globe Life Field on Saturday as they take on the Seattle Mariners in game two of their series.
Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said after Friday night’s big win that game two of a four-game series is just as important as game one.
On Saturday night, the Rangers will have an opportunity to secure the first two games of their pivotal divisional showdown with the Seattle Mariners. First pitch is scheduled for 6:15 p.m.
Anyone not heading out to the ballpark will have a different way to watch the game as Saturday’s broadcast will be exclusively on FOX. On the radio side of things, 105.3 The Fan will still have all the action.
Nathan Eovaldi will take the mound for the Rangers to make his 20th start of the season. In his last start, the veteran right-hander struggled, going just four innings, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks against the Atlanta Braves.
Eovaldi enters play on Saturday with a 9-8 record, a 4.21 ERA, a 1.21 WHIP, and 122 strikeouts in 115.1 innings.
Length will certainly be a key for Eovaldi tonight after the Rangers used four relievers to cover four innings on Friday after MacKenzie Gore went just five innings.
Peyton Gray, Tyler Alexander, Cole Winn, and Jacob Latz still should all be available for Saturday, but if Schumaker and his staff need to go to them, it would certainly put their availability for Sunday’s game into serious question.
However, given the magnitude of this series at this point in the season, Texas will no doubt be pushing all their chips in to try and claim another victory.
Rangers hitters will have the tall ask of facing Seattle right-hander Bryan Woo, who is one of baseball’s best young arms.
Woo comes into play with a 7-6 record, a 4.16 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, and 109 strikeouts in 110.1 innings. It has also been exactly one week since Woo took the mound, so rest will certinally be in his favor.
The Rangers have already seen Woo twice this season, scoring one run against him on April 8 and just 11 days later putting up two.
Several Rangers hitters do, however, have solid career numbers against Woo, as both Ezequiel Duran and Brandon Nimmo are career .500 hitters against Seattle’s young star.
With a win on Saturday, Texas would jump back two games above .500 at 53-51 and would extend their lead in the American League West to 2.5 games, their biggest division lead of the season.
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