ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 6-2 on Saturday night at Globe Life Field and moved into sole possession of first place in the American League West. With the Houston Astros losing to the Atlanta Braves again, Texas is 78-77 and 1 game ahead of Houston (77-78) with 7 games left.
Houston won the season series 9-4 and holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. That means Texas has to finish ahead of the Astros outright. On MLB’s standings page, Houston’s elimination number is down to 7.
Saturday was the second straight win for Texas, which is 6-4 over its last 10 games. Houston is 3-7 over that span and has lost two in a row.
Jordan Montgomery Covers 3 2/3 Hitless Innings After Cal Quantrill Exits
Cal Quantrill left with right lat tightness after one out in the second inning, with Texas up 1-0. Left-hander Jordan Montgomery took over two days after throwing 16 pitches out of the bullpen. He threw 3 2/3 hitless innings on 51 pitches and left with a 3-0 lead.
Montgomery (1-0) got the win. It was his first major league win since August 2024, when he pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Texas added two runs in the second inning against right-hander José Soriano. Soriano walked Wyatt Langford to open the inning and hit Nicky Lopez with a pitch. Langford scored on a throwing error by Toronto’s shortstop, and Lopez came home on a wild pitch.
In the sixth, Nathan Eovaldi followed Montgomery and allowed a run, which cut the lead to 3-1. Eovaldi had thrown 46 pitches Wednesday against Boston. The Rangers scored three times in the bottom half of the inning, and Langford came around on one of those runs when he hurdled his way home on a sacrifice fly. Relievers Robert Garcia and Chase Silseth also pitched for Texas later in the game.
Soriano (12-8) took the loss, and his ERA rose to 3.72. Toronto fell to 76-79.
After the game, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said there was “no real update” on Quantrill. He will have an MRI on Sunday.
Texas Rangers Lead Houston Astros By 1 Game With 7 Left
Texas and Houston had been tied atop the division entering Saturday, the second time this week the teams were even. After Thursday’s loss to Boston, Schumaker said every result counts differently at this point of the season.
“I thought it was a really good series,” Schumaker said. “We would have loved to have gotten that last win, obviously, especially this time of year. Every win, every loss, counts in a different way right now. … But you move on to the next one.”
“That’s the only thing you can do. Every loss hurts right now, but we have a job to do and it’s to try to win however we can tomorrow,” Schumaker continued.
On Sunday at 1:35 p.m. CT, Jacob deGrom starts the series finale for Texas on Rangers Sports Network. Toronto is going with a bullpen day built around Spencer Arrighetti, who beat Texas twice with Houston this season. Monday is an off day. The New York Mets come to Globe Life Field from Sept. 22 to 24, and the Rangers finish the regular season with three games at the Minnesota Twins from Sept. 25 to 27.
Houston finishes its series against Atlanta on Sunday. The Astros then play two games at the Seattle Mariners and four at the Athletics to end the season.
