72-74 – Rangers roll snake eyes in 3-2 loss to Mariners

The Texas Rangers scored two runs but the Seattle Mariners scored three runs.

So the Rangers weren’t especially lucky today. Maybe you could say you make your own luck when you do things like go 11-15 against the Angels and A’s, but the Rangers are trying to right their wrongs and sneak into the playoffs so they’d gladly take any favors that they can get and none arrived this afternoon.

The Mariners were lucky to land baseball’s top pitching prospect Kade Anderson after moving up to No. 3 with just 0.7% odds in the 2025 MLB Draft. They were lucky Anderson was available at No. 3 when two braindead orgs above them opted for slot bonus shenanigans rather than taking the LSU College World Series-winning ace.

That windfall became bad news for the Rangers and today they got their first look of many more to come against Anderson in the fourth start of his young MLB career. As it would turn out, it would be the best outing for Anderson thus far.

Despite pinning ten runs on Seattle less than 24 hours ago, the Rangers were held to just two solo home runs — only one of which came off Anderson, who allowed one run in six innings — and couldn’t make use of an early 1-0 lead with the rookie starter on the mound. Despite some traffic in most innings today, the Rangers went 0-for-5 with RISP and left seven on base.

Meanwhile, Texas starter Cody Bradford allowed two, two-out RBI hits in two separate innings with the first coming after Cal Raleigh drew a walk and only advanced into scoring position on a foul out to the backstop wall which allowed Raleigh to tag up and scamper to second base. Taylor Ward followed with the two-out single that tied the game, a parachute blooper over the head of Justin Foscue.

A few of innings later, in a 1-1 game, Bradford got two quick outs and then a ground ball to a waiting Corey Seager for what appeared to be a sure inning-ender only for it to hit off the second base bag and go for a single to ignite a surprising rally. Ward followed the fortuitous hit with a walk and then Cole Young doubled them both in on a ball to right field that Brandon Nimmo couldn’t reach.

Two runs scored to put Seattle up 3-1 and the scored remained there until the top of the eighth when Seager smacked a solo home run to pull the Rangers to within a run. Unfortunately, a third run never came despite a couple of shots at it in the top of the ninth that ended in strikeouts.

Another opportunity to return to .500 wasted and there’s not terribly many chances left for opportunities to matter.

Player of the Game: Burger hit a second inning solo home run for his 26th dong of the year which broke a tie with Joc Pederson for the current team leader in long balls.

Up Next: The Rangers and Mariners close out this series with a rubber match featuring RHP Jacob deGrom for Texas against RHP Logan Gilbert for Seattle.

The Thursday afternoon finale first pitch from T-Mobile Park is scheduled for 3:10 pm CDT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.