RANGERS REPORT | Our first of the season, as Texas is off prior to a road series with the Yankees

The Texas Rangers have an off-day today (Monday) – it seems like a good time to take a look at how they’ve done so far this season.

Texas is 25-23 overall, and dropped its final game of the series at home against the Houston Astros. That left the Rangers with a 17-10 record at home this year.

So, in the American League West Division, the Seattle Mariners are leading things (26-19); Texas and Houston are both 2 ½ games back; and then the Athletics – ESPN literally doesn’t have a city listed by them, probably because of the happenings between the franchise and the city of Oakland – are 22-25. The Los Angeles Angels are in the division basement after 45 games with a 20-25 mark.

Obviously, there’s a lot of time left in the season – 114 games for the Rangers, to be specific.

In Sunday’s home game, a 4-3 loss to the Astros, rookie Jack Leiter, the former Vanderbilt standout, had a no-hitter going into the seventh, but came out with the lead in favor of reliever Robert Garcia. Moments later, Houston’s Isaac Paredes hit a three-run home run in the eighth.

It was another home run, a solo shot, by Yainer Diaz that got Houston to get on the scoreboard (3-1), and then back-to-back singles by Jake Meyers and Cam Smith chased Leiter from the game.

Chris Martin came on and strangely threw a single pitch, and had to come out with some sort of shoulder injury. Robert Garcia, a left-hander, hit the mound instead, and helped the Astros get two outs before the go-ahead home run by Paredes, Paredes’ seventh home run this season.

Josh Hader had two strikeouts for the save for the Astros.

So Garcia took the loss, even though he only pitched an inning, only allowed one hit, one walk and an earned run. Hader pitched an inning, allowing no hits, walks or runs, and struck out two.

Valdez started for the Astros and got the win: he threw seven innings, allowed three earned runs on six hits, walked one and struck out eight.

The Astros only had the four hits we mentioned: the two home runs by Diaz and Paredes, and the two singles by Smith and Meyers.

The Rangers had a single by Josh Jung in the fourth that started a run – the single scored Sam Haggerty. Wyatt Langford then scored on a sac fly by Justin Heim, and Jung on a single to center by Jake Burger.

That lead went away for good in the eighth.

Haggerty, Langford, Jung, Adolis Garcia, Heim and Burger each had a hit; no Ranger had more than one, and Garcia also struck out three times. Second baseman Marcus Semien walked twice.

Texas went 2-2 in the series against Houston, and prior to that, had swept the Colorado Rockies in a three-game series.

The water gets a little deeper on Tuesday, the start of a three-game series on the road at the New York Yankees. Tuesday’s game has a 6:05 p.m. first-pitch, and Wednesday’s, as well. Thursday’s is a morning start: 11:35 a.m., Central time.

Then, it’s off to Chicago on Friday, a 6:40 p.m. start at the White Sox in a series that lasts through the weekend.

Texas returns home to Globe Life Park next Monday, May 26, to host Toronto.

As far as numbers, the team’s two shortstops, Corey Seager and Josh Smith, have both had a solid season. Smith is hitting .295, with 39 hits in 132 at-bats in the 40 games he’s played. He’s got four home runs, four doubles and a triple in that total. Smith also leads the team in on-base percentage (.365). Seager has played far less games (26), but has 30 hits, four of them doubles and six of them homers. Seager has 12 RBI, and an on-base percentage of .345.

Jung has one more hit than Smith (40), with six doubles, a triple and seven home runs.

Langford’s nine homers lead the team; Langford has 20 RBI, trailing only Garcia for the team lead. Garcia has 24. Langford also leads the team in stolen bases (9).

In pitching, Nathan Eovaldi has a 4-2 record. Eovaldi has thrown 61 1/3 innings, and has a 1.61 ERA. He’s got 65 strikeouts, which leads the Rangers. He’s allowed 39 hits and just eight walks this season.

Tyler Mahle is 5-1 and has the best ERA on the team (1.47). In 55 innings, he’s allowed 36 hits, two of them homers, and has walked 18, struck out 40.

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