Quantrill Throws 7 Scoreless, Rangers Blank AL-Best Rays
Hi, and welcome to another edition of Right
on Rangers Live, coming at you bottom of
the eighth inning.
Texas trying to get some insurance here.
Runner on first base, Brandon Nimmo up to
bat.
Nims 0-2 on the night, looking for
his first base knock.
Good night to be a Rangers fan, as
we like to say.
And I think we have to lead off
right now with Cal Quantrill.
Cal freaking Quantrill, baby.
He just keeps producing.
Cal Quantrill finished seven scoreless innings on two
hits and 95 pitches against the American League's
best team.
What can't this guy do?
Who would have thought spring training, February 2026,
seven months ago, especially after watching Cal Q's
first spring training outings.
This kind of goes to show you, spring
can definitely have its meaning, but man, it
is not going to tell you everything.
And in the case of Cal Quantrill, it
sure didn't.
Evan Carter's going to bounce one over the
first baseman's head.
Kind of weird.
First baseman playing in.
Carter just bounces it right over the head.
It goes into the corner.
And from there, Wyatt Lankford is able to
come around and score just over the head
of the raised first baseman.
Evan will take it, man.
We'll take that all day long.
We surely will.
Evan is going to get all the way
to third base and the Rangers are looking
to push this to six.
You would love to not have to use
any more high leverage tonight.
If you could just put this game out
of reach, that would be phenomenal right now.
You've got so Seth Warman, you got Alexander
who's been warming.
We'll see what Skip Schumaker decides to go
to, but it does appear that we are
going to have a Latz-less ninth inning.
Hopefully.
Hopefully.
Hey, forever winning one's good.
Thank you, Brandon.
I appreciate you, man.
Yeah, where would we be coming from YouTube
here?
Marcus says that we'd be out of the
playoff picture if we didn't have Quantrill.
I mean, look, I definitely feel like we
would be a few games down, more so
than what we already are.
Berger's going to hit this one deep.
Carter should score.
That was a pretty strong throw, but it
was just a little bit off, and Carter
able to make it six nothing with the
wheels.
Good on Jake Berger, putting the ball in
play.
Gets the sack fly, and we are building.
Rangers buying some extra insurance here in the
ninth inning, and you got to love it.
Give as much cushion as you can, whoever's
got the ninth inning, and just let them
pitch a little free and easy, man.
You love to see it.
Rangers have a lot of things working tonight.
No doubt about that.
Justin Foscuee drove in the first run tonight.
Ezekiel Duran made it to nothing.
Corey Seager delivered the biggest swing with a
two-run bomb off Shane McClanahan.
A mistake pitch from McClanahan and Seager.
Are we activating 2023 mode, Corey?
That would be such a godsend if we
could get Corey Seager doing Corey Seager things.
Rangers got to find their stride at just
the right time.
No better time than the present against the
American League's best.
Houston, by the way, already won, unfortunately.
Don't mean to burst anyone's bubble.
Cleveland lost.
Toronto won, so Texas has put itself in
a position to move to one game within
one game of 500 right on the edge
of the wild card.
Got to finish these last three outs, and
we'll be there.
Cody Freeman up to bat right now, 0
-2 with the sack bunt.
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Drop a comment, drop a question.
We will surely get to much, much more
after the game has come to an end.
However, we'll check the chat periodically here and
there as we are going live play-by
-play color commentary.
Cody Freeman lays off a very good sweeper
just outside, and he avoids strike three.
It's a one and two count.
Yeah, Ben, I think a number of us
comment says we found another starter if we
make the postseason.
I mean, Ben, I don't know if we're
just a little late to the party here,
my guy, but we've been talking Cal Q
minimum game three starter probably for the last
three or four weeks.
This guy, I don't think there's any doubt
that he's a playoff starter for you.
I would start Cal Quantrill over MacKenzie Gore.
You'd be foolish not to.
You'd be foolish not to start Cal Q
over Gore, and there's an argument Cal Q
probably needs to be starting game two.
Evaldi, I think if he can get back
to good health, and he was doing some
throwing today, if Evaldi can get back to
good health, yeah, I think there's a very
good chance, a very strong chance he will
resume his usual spot in the one-two,
but Cal Q needs to be game number
three, no doubt.
I don't think that he has left any
room for doubt with how he has pitched
over the last two months, three months.
How far do we want to go back
here?
There's no way I'm starting Gore over Cal
Q right now.
I think it would just be egotistical.
There would be no other logical explanation besides
ego.
Hubris.
Don't want to be wrong.
Don't want to admit that the shiny off
-season five prospect acquisition isn't quite working out
as you planned.
The right thing to do is for this
to be merit-based.
This needs to be a meritocracy at some
point.
At this spot in the season, you got
20-something games left.
Go with the guys who have actually earned
it, not the guys that have the name
brand, not the guys that cost you a
certain amount of either prospects or money.
Go with the guys who have actually performed
on the field.
Cal Q, if you just take his numbers
as a starting pitcher and qualify him, I
know he doesn't have the qualified innings.
I think it's Cam Schlittler and Cal Q,
tops in baseball, in ERA.
That is the perspective here.
It's the wide frame.
He has been incredible.
At this point in the year, there's nobody
really I'm putting over him, even DeGrom.
I know a couple of you guys are
saying I'd start him over DeGrom.
I wouldn't really bat an eye at that
at this point.
DeGrom pitching in game two, it doesn't matter
a whole lot to me, but DeGrom in
game two, Cal Q in game one, I'm
not going to be mad at that.
Cal Q has earned it.
He's totally earned it.
He has been the model of consistency.
He's had a couple of games here and
there where it's blown up on him.
The starter ERA is ridiculous.
He's got to be pushing close to a
two ERA as a starting pitcher.
Tommy Nero retired and the Rangers have a
couple more outs to get here in the
ninth inning.
They lead six to nothing if you're just
joining us.
This has been the crazy frustrating thing about
Texas, hasn't it?
They lose a game like they did yesterday
to the A's, nine to two.
They go out to nothing and then they
get waxed for nine unanswered.
Then they come back 24 hours later and
they do this.
They look like one of the best teams
in baseball.
I mean, look, just this snapshot, you're beating
the ALS best team handedly and they had
one of their best starting pitchers going.
This is the maddening thing about this team
in 2026.
They look so different on a night to
night basis.
Clearly we're just enjoying a night like tonight
where they look like they could be a
playoff team, a deep run playoff team tomorrow.
Who knows?
Who knows what to expect tomorrow?
We're not going to take today for granted.
The Rangers are playing a great ball game.
Jacob Latz's kicking back, enjoying things as they
show him chilling out in the pen.
Let's see if we can get strike three
calls.
Silseth against Aranda, he delivers and that
is strike three little high cheddar.
And so Seth has one out to get
here.
Let's go baby.
Let's go.
Yeah.
Cal Quantrill seven scoreless, two hits 95 pitches
against Tampa Bay.
I mean, I think that's the impressive thing.
Check this out.
Cal Quantrill entered tonight with a one 41
ERA over his previous seven appearances.
Clearly this isn't one random great start out
of nowhere.
Right?
I mean, he entered tonight with that and
he just improved on it.
Cal Q was one 41 ERA over his
last seven appearances.
And he just went ahead and made that
number even lower tonight against the American leagues
best.
It really doesn't matter who's on the other
side.
I had no, no qualms at all.
No doubts about Cal Q coming in tonight
and pitching a solid game.
I don't know how you felt coming into
this ball game.
I thought to myself, Cal's going to keep
us in the game.
It might not be a goose egg.
It might not be a shutout.
It was, but Cal's going to keep us
in the game.
He's going to give you a chance to
win even better than keeping you in the
game.
He's going to give you a chance to
win the game.
And sure enough, we have a incredible gem
of a find on our hands.
This one, you definitely have to give some
love to Chris Young in the front office
on, and we've been hard on CY and
company.
We've been hard on them over the course
of the year.
Fenstermaker as well.
You got to give them some flowers.
You got to show some respect here.
This was a great find by Chris Young
and they could have bailed on Cal Q
a couple of different times.
He struggled out the gate and spring training.
It wasn't looking great.
His first two or three outings were absolutely
terrible.
And for a guy on the fringes and
that can sometimes be a death sentence instead.
Cal Quantrill, he goes to pitch for team
Canada and the WBC.
The rest is history.
He's been one of the most reliable arms
for Texas ever since outstanding RJL.
I think Cal Q is going to be
commanding a pretty penny next year.
Rangers have a one year deal.
I don't know that Cal Q is going
to be sticking around.
Sadly, Texas always doing the thing with some
of the number four, number five starters and
relievers.
I could imagine Cal is going to try
and go get paid.
I do not anticipate him spending a lot
more time in Arlington beyond 2026.
Sadly, I'm a big Cal Q fan.
I started out with a lot of doubt,
but that was wrong on Cal.
I can say that I'm not too proud
to admit it.
I was wrong on Cal.
I said that no clue why he was
stealing reps from guys in spring training.
Sure enough, he comes around with an incredible
2026 season.
I mean, at this point, he's only got
a few starts left in the year, right?
Look, it might be perfect the rest of
the way.
It might be a little bumpy the rest
of the way.
It doesn't matter.
You've won the Cal Quantrill acquisition.
You've won.
Incredible stuff.
Marcus, maybe they will get something done.
If you're Cal Quantrill, you have the lowest
ERA in the major leagues, second to Cam
Schlittler.
Why on earth would you sign a one
-year deal with the Rangers?
Let's just be objective here.
You just had a season like Cal Quantrill.
Are you really looking to sign a one
-year prove-it deal?
You just proved it.
I think it's very wishful thinking that Cal
is going to be coming back to Arlington.
I just want you to keep your expectations
low right now.
If you're Cal Quantrill, you've just proven it.
You're not signing a one-year prove-it
deal if somebody's going to be willing to
give you a two- or a three
-year contract.
I think he will be able to get
that.
This isn't Andrew Heaney having a solid season
as a four or five.
Cal Q is putting up one-two numbers
right now.
I'm not thinking he's going to get a
one-two contract per se, but he is
going to get some money in the offseason.
Absolutely.
I think the chances of Rangers keeping him
are very, very slim.
Market for Cal GBR, I'm with you on
that.
Thank you for the comment, my guy.
Market for Cal is going to be strong.
I don't think he's getting Evo money.
Evo money is $25 million a year.
I don't think Cal is getting Evo money.
I do think he's going to get $15
million, probably two or three years.
That seems like a very fair market value
for Cal when you consider what some other
starting pitchers are getting paid.
That's what you have to chase right now
if you are Quantrill.
You want security.
You want a team that's going to be
giving you a multi-year deal.
The Rangers aren't going to do that.
The Rangers are not going to pony up
for Cal Quantrill, which sucks because I would
love for him to be in Texas for
a couple more seasons and keep carving up
opposing offenses like he did tonight.
It'd be incredible.
Here's Silseth.
Actually, leadoff guy was retired.
Second man up in the inning was retired.
Walked the third batter who advanced to second
on a bounced pitch, a wild pitch.
I don't know what they deemed it, but
right now, 2-2-2.
The Rays down to their final strike.
Mullin's up to bat right now.
Silseth, 16 pitches.
Would love to keep him under 20.
You got a lot more baseball left to
play this week.
Here's the pitch.
Dirt ball.
Mullin's not chasing.
We'll do it again.
3-2 count.
Swolger, I'm with you on this.
Comment from YouTube.
Good start.
Have to win three out of four this
series.
Don't trust this team on the road.
I don't either.
I think you definitely need three or four.
I don't anticipate a sweep.
That would just be the most Homer wishful
thinking.
I think if you actually look at what
this team is capable of, I think three
or four is in the wheelhouse.
At home, 100%.
Could they get the sweep?
Sure.
Baseball is a beautiful sport.
It's a crazy sport.
It's a nonsensical sport at times.
They could do something special.
Absolutely.
I think three of four is realistic.
It's needed.
Two of four, you're doing a lot of
scoreboard watching.
If they only win two out of four,
you are watching that scoreboard quite a bit.
Maybe you luck out and you get a
couple other teams ahead of you and right
behind you losing ballgames.
That could be huge.
You don't want to have to rely on
the scoreboard to make you feel better.
You want to win the games that are
ahead of you.
Lead, no doubt.
What are my thoughts on Rocker?
Yeah, I think Rock is going to find
himself on the outside looking in, at least
this year.
We'll talk more about Rocker maybe a little
bit later on in the show.
I know he'll definitely come up, I'm sure,
as he pitches later on in the week.
But yeah, Rock, when Evo comes back, they
got an interesting decision on their hands.
We'll say that much.
Corey Seager under this one, he makes the
catch.
Cue the I Like Texas music.
Hello, win column.
The Rangers win the opener against the Rays,
a four game set and Texas takes it
six to nothing.
The Rangers tonight got an outstanding gem of
a performance from Cal Quantrill, Cal freaking Q
baby.
Rangers also collected nine hits.
They get a home run from Corey Seager.
They had, let's see, seven of nine starters
with base knocks.
Nobody went multi-hit tonight.
Crazy enough.
Nobody goes multi-hit, but you had five
different guys with RBI.
Rangers definitely took control early in this one
and did not look back.
And that's all Cal needed.
Crazy Cal Quantrill is only seven and five
on the year to 79 season ERA.
And look, the starter ERA for Cal is
even lower at this point.
I think this is probably coming into this
game.
I'm looking on MLB.com stats right now.
I believe coming into this game as a
starting pitcher, he had a 256 ERA.
I've got to imagine that starting pitcher ERA
is going to dip even further at this
point.
I don't think you can sing Cal Quantrill's
praises enough.
He has been nothing short of incredible, especially
considering the expectations that you had of him
at the beginning of the season, which was
innings eater, mop up duty guy, give us
some length in the pen.
No way you envision Cal Quantrill taking the
ball in game one, game two, or game
three of a playoff series.
And yes, I understand playoffs are not a
foregone conclusion, but we're glass half full tonight,
baby.
The Rangers win we're glass half full tonight.
Appreciate all y'all hanging out.
We got a lot to talk about tonight.
It's going to be a great show.
Hope you'll stick around and join us for
the post game here.
We'll take a bunch of comments and questions.
Clearly, you know, I can go on and
on.
I've got a few different things I got
to say as well.
Things I want to talk about with y
'all, but definitely hit me up in the
chat.
If I miss something, please feel free to
paste it again.
Hit, hit copy paste and we'll get to
it eventually.
I really do genuinely try to get to
everything substance.
I know it's frustrating when I'm rambling on,
but you know what?
Patience is a virtue and I ask that
you'd have it with me as we go
through what's going to be a great post
game live show.
All right, here we go.
Let's see.
What do we got Nate?
What's good?
My guy ball game.
Yes, sir.
Cue the Pat green.
I like Texas and it's been a while
since I heard that song.
It was game one of the world series
back in 2023.
Since I've heard that song in person, nothing
like it, John, my guy what's good.
Yeah.
Quantrill has been huge really beyond Evo going
down, right?
I mean, he's been, he's been amazing since
of all the hit the shelf, but I
mean, John, even before that, right?
I mean, he's since, yeah, I would say
since the all-star break, maybe even before
that.
I mean, this guy has been good, consistently
good for a long time now.
He's been up and down starting, you know,
relief.
He's been used in a number of different
roles, but I don't think there's any denying.
He is one of your top two, top
three pitchers.
If you get a Valdi back, maybe Cal
Q slides to that three spot.
As we said earlier on in the show,
I don't see any way that Cal Q
is, is shorter than number three.
I mean, MacKenzie Gore has had some nice
starts here and there.
He has come nowhere close to Cal Q
season.
Nowhere close.
Absolutely nowhere close.
Cal Q has earned it.
It has to be merit-based at some
point.
You're getting to the very last three weeks
of the season here.
It's got to be merit-based.
You've got to have guys playing because they've
actually earned it.
Not because of their potential, not because, you
know, they, they were paid for with a
certain price, five prospects or whatever, $20 million,
who cares?
You've got to give guys playing time right
now based on what they're actually doing on
the field.
Cal Q, Kachow says Cal Q game one,
game two, game three is the lineup.
Yeah, Cal Q at this point could easily
be a game one starter.
No disrespect to DeGrom.
DeGrom has been up and down.
DeGrom has been more up and down than
Cal Quantrill.
I think they'll give the ball to DeGrom
in game one.
I mean, look, I'll definitely be shocked if
that doesn't happen, but I wouldn't be mad
if you gave Cal Q the game one
ball.
Wouldn't be mad at all.
You know, I would live with Cal Q
on the mound, even if it didn't go
according to plan, I wouldn't get on the
show and say, man, I don't know how
you can give the baseball to Cal Quantrill
in game one.
I think you would say, you know what?
He didn't have his best stuff tonight, but
he earned the opportunity.
And here we are.
We keep rolling.
Yes, big win.
Absolutely.
Thank you for the comment, my guy.
Huge win.
Jeremy, I would say you're not wrong.
The question, like we've been talking about, Cal
Q game one in the playoffs.
Am I wrong to think he should be
starting?
No.
Again, you're not wrong if you just say
out loud, Cal Quantrill's been the best starting
pitcher that we've had this season.
That is accurate.
There's nothing inaccurate about that at all.
Look, you can go with the Grom because
of the name brand and the pedigree, but
you cannot argue in good faith that the
Grom has had a better season than Cal
Quantrill.
What are we going to do?
Dive into the advanced stats and argue for
the Grom based on what baseball Savant has
to say, or are we just going to
go with what we're witnessing on the field
and what's actually taking place, which is Cal
Quantrill shutting down the best team in the
American league.
And this is like a routine thing.
It doesn't even matter who he's playing.
Put him up against one of the best
teams, put him up against one of the
worst teams.
He's doing the exact same thing.
I think DeGrom is going to be game
one.
Let me just have the record show right
now.
I'd be shocked if DeGrom is in game
one.
Shocked.
But I surely am not going to be
upset if Cal gets announced the game one
starter, if the Rangers are blessed to make
it to October.
And I wouldn't mind DeGrom right behind him
in game two.
I also won't be upset if it's DeGrom
game one, Cal Q game two.
I don't know what's going to happen with
Evaldi.
If you get Evaldi back, you got to
take him through all of the rehab and
build up and see where he's at.
But even Evaldi, I think that one is
probably going to be another that they slide
in just based on who he is and
what he's been.
But even Evaldi, man, I trust Cal Q
more than Evo right now.
I do.
And especially with Evaldi's injury status up in
the air, he's going to come back with
what, a month absence probably.
It's going to be tough to know what
exactly you can get out of Evaldi.
I am very curious to see how it
plays out.
I just hope this team gives us an
opportunity to actually debate it.
And this is a good first positive step.
You win in this ball game, you get
to 70 games, you're 70 and 71, have
a chance to get to 500 tomorrow.
You have some fortuitous, some not fortuitous results
going on around the league.
Seattle three to two right now against the
A's.
They are quite a bit behind though, if
we're being real.
Houston did win today, unfortunately.
Cleveland lost to Toronto.
Toronto 70 and 71.
Cleveland now 70 and 70.
Hopefully they can beat up on each other
a little bit.
John says, have we missed JJ at all?
Yeah, I think we have, John.
But I do think that the team continues
to find ways to win without him.
Yeah, it hasn't been perfect.
And I do think the Rangers are a
better lineup with Josh Young than without.
Now in the field, maybe a bit of
a different story.
Although Cody Freeman has had an interesting couple
of days defensively.
I think there are a couple of plays
tonight, probably a couple of plays over the
weekend or excuse me, earlier this week that
you'd like to have seen Cody make.
Nevertheless, I think you are missing Josh Young's
bat.
It'll be nice to get him back.
I don't think that you're going to refuse
that proposition at all.
Burger apparently comment here.
Burger man with the shave burger apparently shaved
after batting practice.
Is that what I saw online?
Burger took BP and then decided to go
in and do the shave.
I guess BP didn't go too well for
burger.
Apparently burger go in with a goatee.
Look, Hey, did it work tonight?
Is the, is there a verdict?
Burger goes one for three with an RBI.
I guess it worked.
I guess it worked, man.
Comment here from Facebook.
What's up, brother?
I like what I'm seeing from Oh, hoppy.
Oh, hoppy tonight.
One for two runs scored that run scored
by the way.
Did anybody catch that?
Dave Raymond on the Zeke bloop.
He's like some aggressive base running from Oh,
hoppy.
You're like, dude, there, there was two outs.
Like, of course he's running.
Of course you're going on contact.
No aggressive base running, man.
Must've just forgot how many outs there were,
but Oh, hoppy, uh, able to score on
that little blooper, that little Texas leaguer by
Zeke Duran.
As I like to say, beautiful things could
happen when you simply put the ball in
play and Zeke rightfully rewarded.
They're rightfully rewarded question here.
If we win the series, should we start
100% considering calling up Walcott?
I think at this point, Walcott is probably
only coming up with an injury.
I don't think the team is really trying
to rush him.
I think if there were an injury to
a player that is maybe above Walcott in
terms of reps, sure.
You could possibly see it.
I don't know that they call him up.
Otherwise nothing will shock me, but it feels
like the team wants to see him play
it out in the minor leagues this year.
Look, not the worst strategy, although it would
be a lot of fun to watch Walcott
make that MLB debut.
Wouldn't it?
It would be a ton of fun.
I told you guys a few days ago
in things I would not be complaining about
1000% not be complaining about a Walcott
promotion.
That would be so much fun.
I know there's a lot of people.
He won't, he won't be able to play
next year.
If he's on the 40 man, he he'll
get locked out.
If you keep him in the minors, he'll
get to play minor league baseball.
I mean, come on now.
Like, you know, if anybody thinks Walcott is
going to fall off a cliff because he
can't face more double a pitching.
I mean, I would probably say, let's rethink
a little bit here.
I know that was kind of the big
thing going around last week as the rosters
were about to expand.
If Walcott gets added to the 40 man,
he gets locked out next year with everybody
else on the 40 man.
And look, if Walcott gives you a chance
to win, now you call him up.
If you really think he gives you an
opportunity, call him up.
Let's let him hit.
We keep going.
Hey, keep, keep it up with the comments.
I'm going to keep on rolling.
Let's talk Corey Seager, man.
Corey Seager just gave Chris Young exactly the
kind of September swing he asked for Chris
Young getting on a MLB.
He was on one Oh five, three, the
fan as well.
And Chris Young talked about needing Seager to
be one of the guys that we know
that he can be.
And sure enough, you have Corey Seager taking
McClanahan deep to make it a four nothing
ball game, doubling up the Rangers lead.
You need the stars to perform.
If you're thinking about, if you're looking to
make a run in September and into October
and Corey Seager coming out tonight, punishing a
mistake pitch from McClanahan, that is what star
production looks like in October.
The role players, they create the opening, right?
And you had some of that happening tonight
too, but your $325 million shortstop delivered the
swing that changed the shape of the game.
And it was a beautiful thing to see
2023 mode activated.
I don't know if you want to proclaim
that quite yet.
Last time, Evan Grant and Jared Sandler did
that.
Corey instantly went into a slump.
We'll knock on wood.
We won't proclaim anything like that quite yet,
but I will say this Corey Seager hitting
bombs.
Not only does it feel right, it is
needed.
If the Rangers want to start stacking some
wins and route to their first playoff appearance
since the 2023 world series championship, let's keep
rolling.
Look, we put out a video today.
Rangers ultimately end up going 11 and 15
against the A's and angels combined.
The Astros record doesn't look very good either.
We won't talk about that one too much,
but less than 24 hours after getting drilled
nine to two by a 54 win A's
team, Texas beats the AL best Tampa Bay
rays six to nothing.
I mean, look, this is Rangers baseball in
2026.
The ceiling isn't difficult to see.
This team can win games like this.
They can hang with some of the best
teams in baseball.
The maddening part is they have spent all
year.
They have spent all season making the floor
look way too low.
You will see the Rangers do something special
like this and then turn around and do
the exact opposite the next night.
And that has been the issue.
And the reason why the Rangers do not
find themselves more solidified in the playoff race
in a playoff spot.
Texas has to find a way to make
this repeatable.
You don't have to shut out the opposing
team every night, but you get great pitching.
You score five, six runs.
It makes a very, very strong case for
a Rangers victory.
That is the formula.
The Rangers set out at the beginning of
2026.
We got to get good pitching.
We got to scrape across four plus runs.
That's been the formula for the last couple
of years now.
And here we are.
Rangers going according to plan tonight.
And you just hope tomorrow it can be
more of the same.
Kachow says, see you, Timber.
I love it, baby.
I love it.
John, I'm with you on this comment from
YouTube.
John says, Corey has got to start getting
hot if this team has any chance.
I mean, they might be able to limp
into October without Corey really getting hot.
They're not going to win the whole thing
unless Corey Seager starts doing Corey Seager things.
Gary, what's good, man?
They're so inconsistent.
Hope they can go on an epic run
the rest of the way.
You and me both, my friend.
Good to see you.
Really good to see you, brother.
Richard Quantrill, huge.
I agree with you.
Zach should have been called up already.
Wouldn't have minded it.
I'm assuming you're talking about Walcott.
I wouldn't have minded Walcott getting the call
at all.
Still won't mind it.
What else we got?
Jeremy, yes, sir.
Comment from YouTube.
It's been a long season, Austin.
It has been.
In some ways, it's gone by quick.
In a way, I was just talking with
the wife yesterday, and I'm like, it's already
game 140, man, or 141, or whatever it
is.
Game 141 was tonight.
In some ways, you sit back and you
say, wow, where has the season gone?
In other ways, you say, man, this has
been a bit of a long one, enduring
some of the baseball that we've had to
endure this year.
John, I would say it is one of
the more maddening teams in the game.
And a lot of the conversation around the
Rangers right now is, don't trust them.
Like today, John Boye did a little short.
They went around the office, kind of bar
stool style.
If you watch some of the bar stool
videos that get put out, where they go
around the office and they ask people their
opinions, or they ask people like trivia.
And the question John Boye put out today
was, who is going to win the AL
West?
Who's going to win the AL West?
Nobody took Texas.
And in fact, a couple of people said,
don't trust the Rangers.
Meaning like, I don't trust the Rangers.
I can't say they were actively encouraging anybody
to not trust, but they're right.
You can't trust this team.
You just can't.
And I've said that, like, I believe this
team can still make it to October, but
I don't trust them.
I don't trust them.
I need to see a month of consistency
here for me to fully trust this club
heading into October.
Now, does that mean I'm not going to
be rooting for them with my whole heart?
No, absolutely not.
Once the Rangers end this year and the
regular season, if they're fortunate to get to
the big dance, yeah, we're behind them all
the way, but I do not trust this
squad.
Not yet, at least.
Not yet.
Rays haven't won in Arlington since June 2022.
Hey, Tampa Blake, appreciate you hanging out, man.
Love having other people come in, especially from
the other side.
Hasn't been that long, man.
That is wild.
Wouldn't think that with how good the Rays
are.
I mean, we got a lot of respect
for the Rays.
Well-run organization.
They know how to turn out good ball
clubs without spending a ton of money.
I'm shocked it's been a couple of years
since.
Wow.
Thanks for hanging out, man.
Appreciate the comment as well.
Holly, agree with you.
Yeah, I mean, look, how do you not
respect the Rays?
They don't have a great payroll.
Don't have a great stadium.
No offense to any of the Rays fans
hanging out that love the trop.
It's definitely going to be nice, I think,
when that place gets upgraded, but they just
keep churning out good teams, man.
They really do.
You know, honestly, just a little side note.
I was cheering.
I remember in 2020, I was cheering so
hard for the Rays to figure it out
against the Dodgers.
I'm sad it didn't work out.
Still sad it didn't work out.
I mean, that is kind of where legendary
Corey Seager postseason mode was born, but man,
I wanted the Rays to take that one
from the Dodgers.
I really did, especially knowing what we do
now with the Dodgers reeling off multiple championships.
We keep going.
John says, dude, what about Foscue?
Is he one of the biggest turnaround players
we've seen this season?
I think Foscue is a success story this
season.
I will say that very confidently.
I know I've been hard on Foscue.
I still can't say I am a Foscue
believer at this point, and I guess let
me clarify, I just don't know game on
the line.
Is Foscue going to be a guy that
consistently delivers?
I don't know, and until you get into
those moments, it's going to be hard to
know.
I have my doubts still about Foscue.
You can't deny ever since that little mini
skid right after the All-Star break, he
started out, had a really bad rest of
July.
I feel like since August, the calendar turned
to August, and now September, he has been
back to his usual ways.
What I love about Foscue is that he's
found his niche with the team.
He's found the niche, and that's awesome.
That's great for him.
He is now one of the guys that
is relied upon to hit the lefties, and
you're happy to have him.
I do hope that the Rangers, and I've
said this point, I feel like every night
for the past week, I'd love to see
the team get away from the one-trick
ponies, only can hit lefties, only can hit
righties, only good at defense, only good at
base running.
I feel like the team has a number
of one-trick ponies, and Foscue feels like
one of them to me, but you know
what?
The last couple of years, it was zero
trick, and there's a couple of players that
were zero trick as well that have suddenly
turned into really good producers for the team,
and so I'm happy for Foscue, very happy
for him.
Johnny, what's good, man?
O'Hoppe has been having a good run.
I've been pleased with what I've seen from
him.
Look, I think it's fairly obvious the club
doesn't really trust him to do a lot
of catching yet.
We haven't really seen O'Hoppe do a ton
of that.
I'm assuming they want to make sure the
bat is going to play, and you know
what?
In the offseason, they can get O'Hoppe in
the lab, and we go from there, but
I think the Rangers probably a little bit
nervy about Foscue behind the dish.
Look, I guess as long as you get
the bat right, maybe they feel confident enough
that the glove can follow.
Foscue, though, give him credit, man.
Had another big hit tonight, and I don't
think there's any denying whether or not you
think Foscue is going to turn into this
great ball player.
Let's shelve that for a second here.
Let's just focus on the here and now.
It's been great having a guy that can
consistently hit left-handed pitching.
It's been great.
Hmm.
RK Vulture, is Cal Q the best pitcher
in baseball right now?
I would imagine there's not a lot of
pitchers with better numbers than Cal Quantrill.
I mean, I read the numbers to you
guys coming into this ballgame.
Cal Quantrill had a 141 ERA over his
last seven appearances.
Do we really think there's a lot of
starting pitchers in the game that have that
number?
And then, by the way, he added on
to that and bettered that number tonight.
I don't think there's a lot of starting
pitchers that are doing what Cal's doing right
now.
So if you're just asking me to decide
at this moment in time, I'm going to
say yes.
I think he is probably the best pitcher
in Major League Baseball with how he's been
throwing right now.
I don't think that's a hot take.
Now, objectively, again, wide frame here, sure, there's
pitchers that you'd rather have than Cal Quantrill.
But right now, in terms of results on
the field, there's not a lot of pitchers
in the game, probably none, that are on
a better run than Cal Quantrill right now.
He deserves all the credit in the world.
He gets his seventh win tonight.
He started off absolutely terrible in surprise.
I can remember, I can pull up the
tweets right now, which I don't delete.
I told y'all, I don't delete any
tweets.
I've got some bad ones on Cal.
I'll fully admit it.
I lost all faith in Cal at the
beginning when he was getting shelled in spring
training.
And I think a lot of people were
in the same boat.
I don't think there were a lot of
Cal Quantrill truthers after his first three really
bad outings in surprise.
Then the dude takes off to the WBC
and the rest is history.
He goes and throws five shutout innings against
Team Cuba.
He came back a brand new man, brand
new pitcher.
And here we are Cal on an Epic
run that not a lot of major league
pitchers, if any are besting at this moment
in time.
Good stuff.
Jared says, I'll be at the game tomorrow.
Hope we see a repeat of tonight's game.
Absolutely.
Tejas night, Friday night, tomorrow.
Gotta love it, baby.
Hopefully the Rangers can secure the series split
tomorrow.
We're going to preview that game here in
just a little bit.
We've got about seven or eight minutes before
we start previewing tomorrow's game.
Let's finish up tonight, shall we?
The standings consequence we've already talked about a
little bit, but it's real tonight.
Houston won.
You lose tonight.
You drop another game back of the Astros.
Houston's already 72 and 69.
Toronto though, beating Cleveland gave Texas something else,
right?
If this holds, which look, I think games
around are pretty much finalized.
We've got the Mariners and the Dodgers Cardinals
as the only games left.
So this, this is going to hold 70
and 70, the Indy, uh, the Indians, the
guardians.
Sorry.
Uh, it always happens.
Uh, they're always going to be the Indians
to me.
I think I've almost got guardians on lock.
Almost look.
Cleveland is 70 and 70.
Texas is 70 and 71 Toronto, 70 and
71.
They're right there.
Texas is a half game out of the
wild card, half game out of the wild
card.
At this point, the Orioles lost.
They are now 69 and 72 had the
Orioles one.
They would have been 70 and 71 as
well.
They lose to the Red Sox.
And now they drop a game clear.
Rangers are essentially going to wake up on
Friday, sitting right on the wild card line.
Uh, what more could you ask for?
Like, I think you remember in 2024, I
got some, some old school followers that have
been here since nearly day one.
You know who you are.
I mean, I remember in 2024, like it
was August, July.
And I just remember begging, can we please
just be playing meaningful games in September?
Like it was pretty bad in 2024.
Like we got knocked out pretty early.
And I just remember pleading like, man, like,
I just want these games to matter.
Like we're getting that it's September 3rd and
all these games still matter.
I think you would love to see this
team more firmly in a playoff spot, but
at least we're not already thinking about next
year with this club.
Can't take that for granted.
Absolutely.
Cannot great game tonight.
Again, if you're just joining us, Rangers win
six, nothing on the back of Cal Quantrill,
seven innings, zero earned runs, two hits, two
walks, five strikeouts.
Corey Seager, two run bomb.
Rangers tacked on a couple more late.
Beautiful thing.
It is a beautiful thing.
All right, let's keep rolling.
Let's do a little bit of Rangers news.
Little 40 man pulse, if you will.
Let's talk Evo.
Nathan Evaldi threw roughly a 25 pitch bullpen
today.
Skip Schumaker said the current expectation is another
bullpen or live BP before Texas determines the
next building step.
So 25 pitch pen today for Evo.
Good stuff.
You hope that it can continue to get
better and better.
You'd love to get Evo back with maybe
a week and a half to go.
Maybe get in a couple of starts before
the start of October, before the postseason.
And look, maybe those starts will actually be
very much needed to make the playoffs.
Evo throwing is definitely a good sign.
Let's talk Josh Young.
The Jungle Cat continued jogging today.
Running the bases is the next step.
And he's doing essentially every other baseball activity.
Mid-September remains the target for Josh Young.
They were talking about maybe sending him out
on a rehab assignment this weekend.
We will see if that ends up happening.
It'll probably depend on how the base running
goes.
And at this point, getting him back in
the lineup would be a huge boost.
Some of you guys talked about and asked,
where do you put Young?
I think there's a number of different places
that he could fit.
But right now, I like this Zeke Duran
leadoff spot.
I know Jock Peterson is married to that
leadoff spot in the eyes of Skip Schumaker.
So when there's a right-handed starter, I
don't see that changing.
But against lefties, I like Zeke leadoff.
I'd imagine that Josh will probably be batting
fifth.
I think that the cleanup spot, going with
Nimmo, probably the wise thing to do.
I think you could slide JJ back into
the five hole and feel really good about
him with an opportunity with guys on base.
That's the one thing about hitting Young like
second.
Remember how we were hitting Josh like second,
third.
I feel like if you hit him fifth,
he is going to have a lot of
opportunity to drive in runs with traffic.
That would be the ideal.
So if Josh Young can come back, slide
him into the middle of that order, five
hole, he's going to have Nimmo ahead of
him.
He's going to have Seager and Langford ahead
of him.
I really like that look for the Rangers
lineup.
Lastly, Robert Garcia.
He came through live BP well, and he's
expected to begin a rehab assignment this weekend.
Texas expects roughly two or three rehab appearances
before activation.
There's not a lot of talk about how
exactly Robert Garcia is going to be used.
However, we talked about this on the show
the other night, and I would not be
shocked if RG is used in a leverage
lefty, lefty role.
I think he will get utilized in the
seventh inning and the eighth inning against lefties.
I'm not saying they're going to throw him
in the fire right away, but I do
think eventually they are going to build him
up to that.
I would be surprised if you didn't see
that exactly.
I don't think he's going to be your
mop up guy.
Maybe if he's getting really hit around down
in the minor leagues on rehab, you'll take
a pause and reconsider, but I see Texas
using him in lefty on lefty high leverage
moments.
We shall see.
Hopefully the rehab goes well.
Look, I know we joke and we clown
on Robert Garcia a little bit.
Rangers are better off if you can get
a dominant version of RG.
I did say coming into this season, if
you use Robert Garcia properly, which to me
is against lefties, you get two or three
lefties coming up, use him and he can
be a weapon.
It's when you start throwing him against righties
that things got really dicey last year and
even this year.
I think him being a lefty specialist type
is where his value is this year.
That doesn't mean you can't open it up
and possibly expand his role into something more
next year, but for right now, I'd love
to see him match up against some of
the tough lefties in a lineup and be
a weapon in that regard.
We'll keep rolling.
Cal Quantrill, by the way, speaking right now,
let me know if he says anything of
note, of interest, and we're going to keep
on rolling with tomorrow.
We have, first of all, though, a couple
of different things to go through.
Tomorrow's starting pitcher, we have on the mound,
let's see, it will be Kumar Rocker against
Nick Martinez, former Ranger Nick Martinez.
This is not an easy guy, man.
$299 ERA for Nick.
I did a birthday post for him earlier
this year.
Nick Martinez has had quite an interesting career,
man.
He's an easy guy to root for.
Clearly, I won't be rooting for him tomorrow,
but always root for Nick Martinez, man.
Former Ranger, once a Ranger, always a Ranger.
13-4 this year with a $299 ERA.
Doesn't get a ton of swing and miss,
but just gets a lot of soft contact
and is a crafty pitcher out there.
It's going to be tough, I think, for
the Rangers tomorrow.
Look, they beat McClanahan tonight.
Nick Martinez, back to back nights, it's a
tall order.
Be a big win if they can get
tomorrow's W.
Let's talk through the lineups, the matchups, each
potential lineup against each potential starting pitcher.
Nick Martinez against Jake Berger.
Berger is 0-5.
Durant, 1-2, excuse me, against Nick Martinez.
Elias Diaz, 4-8 with a homer.
I think Elias Diaz might need to start
again.
Danny Jansen, 0-2.
Brandon Nimmo, 3-10.
O'Hoppe, 0-4.
Jock Peterson, whoa, 2-5 with two bombs
against Nick Martinez.
I think we'll be seeing Jock tomorrow.
And then Kumar Rocker against the Rays.
He doesn't have a lot of numbers.
Aranda is 2-3 in his career.
Caminero, 0-4.
And Diaz is 1-5.
And then you have Walls, the shortstop, 1
-2.
Very small sample size for Rocker against the
Rays.
Kumar Rocker is coming off some, I would
say, up and down starts, man.
He's had some good moments in his last
several starts.
He's had some rough moments.
In his last two starts, he struck out
at least seven.
That's the positive.
But he's also walked seven in those last
two starts.
That's the negative.
And he's allowed a lot of traffic and
base runners.
It's going to be a tough team for
Rock.
I said that against the Brewers, and it
did end up being a tough matchup.
It's going to be a tough matchup for
Rocker.
But you would love to see him come
out and have a really clean six-inning
start.
Can we get six, Kumar?
Please.
The four or five-inning stuff, we got
to be done with that.
Rocker, let's see.
In his last three starts, the furthest he's
made it is 5-2.
When's the last time he went six frames?
July 27th against Seattle, he went 6-2.
Kumar has not had a six-inning start
since July 27th.
Probably going to be a little bit of
a bullpen day tomorrow, if those numbers hold
up.
But man, you'd love to see Kumar give
you six quality.
That would be phenomenal.
All right, let's check comments, and then we're
going to land this thing.
Appreciate all you guys hanging out.
What's this comment, Kachow?
I'm like the ultimate jinxer commented about Wyatt
the other time, and he went off.
Now Cal Q, and he's winning games for
us.
You can go back, look up Cal Quantrill
tweets.
Man, I'm a big believer.
You got to stand on your takes, don't
delete.
The only time I've ever deleted is if
I just get information straight up wrong.
If I just have a bad opinion or
a bad take, I'm leaving that up there.
It's not always about having a clean track
record with every one of your takes.
You're going to have some bad ones over
the course of a career.
One of my bad ones this year was,
what the heck is Cal Quantrill doing taking
away innings from some of our other guys?
Apparently preparing to be one of the best
pitchers in baseball in 2026.
Just saying, got to eat some crow on
that one for sure.
11 years ago today, the Dodgers called up
Seager.
That is awesome.
Very, very cool.
He's had a pretty good career.
He's one of four major league baseball players
to win world series MVP twice.
It's incredible.
Corey Seager, definitely a living legend in that
regard.
I know Seager is polarizing and in some
ways rightfully so, but I don't think there
is any questioning.
He's got legendary status in the game.
Again, one of four players to have won
a world series MVP twice, and I wonder
if he's one of the only ones to
have done it with different teams.
Pretty impressive.
All right, let's lay in this thing.
The ceiling, tonight told me, the ceiling is
absolutely there.
Texas, we know, can get seven dominant innings
from Quantrill.
It's happened multiple times this year, and they
can get a star swing from Corey Seager
against the best team in the American League
and go win a ball game.
This roster is capable of playing winning baseball
against anybody.
The problem has been they unfortunately are capable
of playing losing baseball against anybody, and we
talked about the Angels and the Astros and
the A's record that the Rangers have put
up this season.
Give you a big spoiler alert, it's not
a winning one.
Rangers though, showing you the vision, showing you
why some people believe if this team can
start getting consistent production out of their stars,
they could make a run.
Still unsure about whether or not the Rangers
are going to be able to really stack
games on top of this one.
I hope that they do.
You go 11 and 15 against the A's
and Angels, that doesn't disappear just because of
one great game, one excellent game against Tampa
Bay.
The question has never been whether Texas can
look good for one night.
It's about tomorrow, right?
What's tomorrow going to look like?
I know we joke around, save some runs
for tomorrow, please.
If the Rangers win like 12 to two,
you're almost expecting, just like clockwork, that the
next game is going to be a stinker.
You'd love to see Texas really continue to
have these types of dominating performances as they
start building up to the end of the
season and into October.
Next, Kumar Rocker, he gets Nick Martinez tomorrow.
Texas doesn't need tonight to become just another
isolated nice win, right?
The real opportunity, you've taken the opener and
now you're immediately putting pressure on Tampa Bay
and you'd love to see tomorrow secure that
series split and have an opportunity, have two
opportunities to win a series on Saturday, Sunday.
Be beautiful.
Trying to speak it into existence right now.
Hey, Cholo Pen, appreciate the gifts, by the
way.
Thank you so much.
It means a lot.
Scrolling back through, a couple of y'all
going to the game tomorrow.
That is phenomenal.
Excellent.
Sookie, what's good?
Yeah.
The comment from YouTube here is Cal Q
game one starter.
I'm with it.
I'll ride with it.
You, I'm not going to be mad at
it.
If they announced Cal Q game one starter,
you're not going to see me up in
arms.
He's earned it.
He's been better than DeGrom this year.
DeGrom has had better individual performances here and
there, but not consistent.
Cal Q has earned it.
I don't think he is going to be
the game one starter.
I think they'll give it to DeGrom or
of all the, I do think he's earned
his spot right behind them at minimum game
three.
There's no way you can give Gore the
ball over Cal Quantrill in a game three,
assuming Evo and DeGrom are game one, game
two.
No way you can do it.
Gary, thank you so much for the gift,
man.
Appreciate it.
Josh, a comment from him says, TikTok, by
the way, Evo and Rocker have been horrible.
I mean, look, not horrible, but inconsistent.
I would say, Josh, I agree that they
have not been what you expected or wanted
this year.
I can't say horrible, my guy, but I
can say they've been inconsistent.
Absolutely.
Appreciate the comment, brother.
Thank you so much.
When do we think Evo comes back?
Nate, apparently he threw a 25 pitch bullpen
today.
He's going to take a couple of days
off, then do maybe another pen or a
live BP.
I think they're probably hoping maybe last week,
week and a half, he can ramp up
a little bit.
Maybe they can get a start or two
out of him, but it's totally up in
the air right now, my guy.
Hey, we're going to take off.
It's been a great show with you guys.
It has been a good Thursday.
We got the weekend ahead of us and
we will be live all weekend long, eighth
or ninth inning.
I do hope you come and hang out
and join us hopefully for some more Rangers
wins.
That would be outstanding.
Rangers trying to get that series split secured
tomorrow with Kumar Rocker on the bump.
I will have a bunch of content out
to you tomorrow.
We'll release the pod early on in the
morning.
If you missed any part of the show,
I always do the chapter timestamps, by the
way, so that way you don't have to
feel like you got to watch the whole
show.
I always try and segment off so you
can go right to the spot in the
show that interests you the most.
Always check the description.
You miss a show, go check out the
pod and see what segment maybe catches your
attention that you missed out on while the
show was live.
And then we'll have some of our usuals.
We'll have, I think, a birthday post out
tomorrow.
We'll have a Rangers history post out.
I'll maybe have a couple of reels out
cutting things from the show tonight.
That's worked out really nicely, by the way.
I've gone to that more and more over
the last couple of weeks and I've loved
it.
Thank you for all the ways you continue
to support the show.
Greatly appreciate you.
Hope you have a blessed rest of your
Thursday.
Labor Day weekend.
Yes, sir.
Long weekend coming up.
You got to love it.
Let's get some great baseball on top of
it.
Long weekend and let's see the Rangers doing
some big things against the AL's best team,
the Tampa Bay Rays.
All right, y'all.
Have a good night.
And as I always say, attend every show.
God bless and go Rangers.
