While the Texas Rangers lost their final game with the St. Louis Cardinals , two players had big games.
First, relief pitcher Robby Ahlstrom made his Major League debut in the game while Cody Freeman made his season debut and made a highlight-reel catch that is sure to be on everyone's year-best list.
Ahlstrom, a left-hander, had to wait three days to make his debut after his contract was selected on Monday. the Rangers dropped him into the game in the seventh inning, and he gave the Rangers four straight outs. He retired the side in the seventh and then recorded the first out of the eighth inning before handing the ball to Cal Quantrill . He struck out two.
The 26-year-old has been waiting for this chance for five years. He was originally the New York Yankees ' seventh-round pick in the 2021 MLB draft out of Oregon. The Rangers got him as part of a 2022 trade that sent catcher Jose Trevino to the Yankees. Ahlstrom was in Major League spring training in Surprise and impressed the organization. He was 1-2 with a 2.76 ERA with Triple-A Round Rock. He had two saves in three chances.
As for Freeman, he was also activated on Monday after missing the first two months of the season with a lumbar stress reaction. He also waited to make his season debut on Wednesday. He came in as a pinch-hitter for Alejandro Osuna and went 1-for-2. He played both second base and left field. But it was the play he made at second base that impressed everyone.
With the Rangers poised to make at least two roster moves on Friday, the status of both players is up in the air.
Texas Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson celebrates with third baseman Josh Jung after a win. | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
In the last 13 games, the Texas Rangers ' offense has been, well, weird. It is in keeping with something that manager Skip Schumaker said last weekend about the team's offense -it's still trying to figure out what kind of offense it wants to be.
Texas won five of its last six games, including a five-game winning streak, with three of those games at Globe Life Field, where they've had difficulty generating offense this season. The slash line says otherwise.
In those six games the Rangers slashed .281/.351/.438 with five home runs and 32 RBI. Now compare that to the seven games before that, during which the Rangers went 1-6 against the Los Angeles Angels and the Houston Astros . In those games they slashed .187/.272/.361 with nine home runs and 23 RBI.
It's clear the Rangers should be trading a little slug for more on-base, just in that small sample size.
For the past two months the Rangers have benefited from everyone's inability to get going in the AL West. Well, that's changed. The Seattle Mariners have figured some things out.
Seattle (33-30) leads the division having won eight of its last 10 games. The Mariners now have the best run differential in the division (+30) and have a 2.5 game lead on the Rangers (30-32).
If there was any team that was going to take control of the division it was going to be its defending champion. Like Texas, its offense struggled after a strong start, and it rode starting pitching to stay in the race. Now, the bats are coming around in Seattle, and it has some semblance of control of the race.
If Texas' offense continues to hit like it has against Kansas City and St. Louis , the Rangers could start to make this a two-horse race as the season continues.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/mlb/rangers/onsi as Rangers Notes: Robby Ahlstrom's Perfect Debut, Cody Freeman's Amazing Catch .
