ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers announced MacKenzie Gore as their starter for Tuesday night’s series opener against the New York Mets at Globe Life Field, with left-hander Sean Manaea going for New York.
First pitch is at 7:05 p.m. CT on Rangers Sports Network. The three-game series closes the Rangers’ final homestand of the regular season, with a 7:05 p.m. CT game Wednesday and a 1:35 p.m. CT finale Thursday.
Gore (8-11, 4.67 ERA) makes his first start since muscle spasms in his back and shoulder cut short his Sept. 16 outing against the Boston Red Sox. His 32 starts are tied for the most in the majors.
With six games left, Texas (78-78) is one game ahead of the Houston Astros (77-79) in the American League West. Earlier Sunday, Houston lost 4-2 at home to the Atlanta Braves. The Astros hold the tiebreaker between the clubs, though the Rangers don’t play them again this season. Monday was the last scheduled off day of the regular season for both teams.
In Sunday’s 7-2 loss to the Toronto Blue Jays, Jacob deGrom pitched 4 1/3 innings and allowed 5 hits and 3 earned runs, walking 4 and striking out 2. He said afterward that he did not do a great job of helping the Rangers in that spot.
“We know we gotta win,” deGrom said. “We gotta win as many games as we can. It’d be nice to win all of them. It would have been nice to win today, but I didn’t do a great job of helping us in that situation. We have to go play good baseball in these last six games and see what we can do.”
Sean Manaea And The New York Mets
Manaea is 5-7 with a 4.74 ERA. His velocity was down in spring training, so the Mets opened the season using him in a piggyback relief role before moving him into the rotation by the end of May, and he had made 16 starts in 30 appearances through Sept. 15.
Manaea had a perfect game going through five innings Sept. 8 at Miami before the Marlins scored 4 runs off him in the sixth. He left without recording an out in that inning, and the Mets won behind three home runs. He is signed through 2027 on a three-year, $75 million contract.
The Mets have been eliminated from postseason contention and sit last in the National League East. On Friday, they beat the Philadelphia Phillies 6-3 to end a five-game losing streak, their longest under interim manager Andy Green. Philadelphia won 7-2 on Sunday at Citi Field to split the four-game series. Nolan McLean is scheduled to start Thursday’s finale for New York.
Texas Rangers’ Rotation And Final Six Games
The Rangers have not announced starters for Wednesday or Thursday. Cal Quantrill left Saturday’s start after 1 1/3 innings with right lat tightness and went on the 15-day injured list Sunday.
On Sunday morning at Globe Life Field, Jack Leiter reached 92 to 93 mph in the first bullpen session he has thrown since going on the 60-day injured list after ankle surgery.
On the homestand, Texas is 4-2 after going 2-1 against Boston and taking two of three from Toronto. After Sunday’s loss, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said the Rangers fought and played hard even without the sweep.
“We won a series, a good series win against a tough team. Yeah, of course you would have liked to have swept and got a win,” Schumaker said. “We didn’t, but these guys fought and played hard. If you would have told me we won the first two series of the homestand, I would have taken it. And we did just that.
“And we have an off day, a much-needed off day, with a lot of these guys are feeling it a little bit,” Schumaker continued. “So hopefully we can come back and feel refreshed and play a really good Mets team that’s playing really good right now.”
At 77-79, Toronto is tied with Houston and 2 1/2 games behind the Chicago White Sox for the third and final American League wild card. After the Mets leave town Thursday, the Rangers close the regular season with three games at the Minnesota Twins from Sept. 25-27.
