Texas Rangers look to bounce back against the hot Colorado Rockies

Atlanta Braves v Texas Rangers
Atlanta Braves v Texas Rangers / Ron Jenkins/GettyImages

After a much-needed day off, the AL West leading Texas Rangers (26-17) will host the NL West last place Colorado Rockies (19-25) for a three-game series beginning tonight. The Rangers dropped a heartbreaker in the rubber game of the series against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. They will look to get back to their winning ways this weekend.

Ranger fans shouldn't let Colorado's season record lull them into thinking that they are going to be a pushover. The Rockies started off the season terribly but have righted the ship in May. In fact, they have a better record (10-5) in the month of May than the hot Rangers (9-6).

Texas Rangers schedule against the Colorado Rockies

Date and Time

Rangers Probable Pitcher

Rockies Probable Pitcher

Fri 19th - 7:05 CT

Martin Perez LHP 4-1, 4.25 ERA, 31 SO

Karl Kauffmann RHP - MLB debut

Sat 20th - 3:05 CT

Jon Gray RHP 3-1, 3.15 ERA, 32 SO

Kyle Freeland LHP 4-4, 3.16 ERA, 38 SO

Sun 21st - 1:35 CT

Andrew Heaney LHP 2-3, 4.71 ERA, 47 SO

Connor Seabold RHP 1-0, 5.14 ERA, 20 SO

In tonight's game the Rangers will look to go 3-1 while wearing the City Connect uniforms. Perez will be the fourth different starting pitcher to don the City Connects for the Rangers. Nathan Eovaldi is the only starter not to pitch in the alternate uniforms. Dane Dunning also hasn't started while sporting them. However, he did pitch 3 1/3 innings in them, and got the win against the Yankees, when deGrom had to leave early with an injury. Tonight, the first 15,000 fans will receive a Corey Seager, City Connect bobblehead.

Colorado has allowed the most runs in the National League so far this season at 223. However, they have scored the sixth most runs in the National League with 198. One thing that the Rockies don't do is steal bases. They are last in MLB with 14 stolen bases and have been caught stealing 5 times. The 19 stolen base attempts by Colorado is the fewest in the majors.

Texas Rangers set to host the streaking Colorado Rockies

Kyle Freeland has been really good this year. Out of his nine starts this season, six have been at the hitter friendly Coors Field and only three on the road. Despite having to pitch so much in a hitter's park, Freeland is 4-4 in nine starts, has pitched 51 1/3 innings, has 38 strikeouts, 12 walks, a 3.16 ERA, and a 1.110 WHIP. He will go against former Rockies pitcher Jon Gray on Saturday afternoon in what should be an exceptional matchup.

This series looked like one that could be an easy win a few weeks ago, but with the way that Colorado has turned things around, it should be extremely competitive. A series win would be a great thing for the Rangers before they go back on the road for the remainder of the month. Texas will finish up the month of May with a 10 day, nine game road trip to Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Detroit.