3 things we learned about the Rangers in the Silver Boot series

In a 2-2 split of a long weekend Silver Boot series for the Texas Rangers with intrastate rivals, the Houston Astros, there was a lot to be happy about, some things that need improvement, and some abysmal play from a certain few. Let's dig a little deeper into these areas and highlight some of each in what could very easily have been a four-game sweep if the bad and ugly hadn't overshadowed the good.

Texas Rangers starting pitching continues to be beyond good

Well, we have been saying it all year, but the starting pitching for the Texas Rangers has been nothing short of spectacular. Jacob deGrom had not only his best outing as a Texas Ranger but arguably his best showing since 2019 before his arm injuries. He delivered 8 shutout innings, allowing only 5 hits, getting a 1-0 win in the series opener

Nathan Eovaldi and Tyler Mahle brought their typical all-star caliber stuff to the hill, allowing just one run between them in 12.2 innings pitched. Eovaldi continues to be the workhorse for this starting staff, and Mahle is making BOBO Chris Young look like more of a genius every time he suits up, as he has now racked up 5 wins this season

And it was good to see Jack Leiter get in on the action in the series finale. In 7 innings, he showed a live fastball to go along with the command that we've been waiting to see. His final stat line doesn't reflect how good he was, allowing 3 earned runs, but if he can continue to pitch like he did Sunday, this team is in really good shape.

The Rangers bullpen reached new levels of bad

The bullpen is starting to show signs of being a weakness for the Rangers, as they blew two late leads in both of the losses.

Shawn Armstrong was nails in the opener to get the save for deGrom, but came back the next day and got tattooed by the Astros and Christian Walker, who sealed the Rangers' fate with a late three-run bomb.

Stalwart Robert Garcia also came in in the eighth inning of the series finale and gave up a laser home run to Isaac Paredes just over the outstretched glove of a leaping Wyatt Langford in the left field corner that ended up costing Leiter a win that he probably deserved.

And to rub some more salt on the wound, Chris Martin's mysterious elbow injury flared up again after just a single pitch on Sunday, and for the second time in three relief appearances, he left the mound assisted by the head trainer. Losing Martin for any length of time would be devastating.

The ugly pattern of poor hitting with RISP came back

It's been an issue thus far in 2025 and continues to keep the Rangers from getting well above the .500 mark for the season. This team has started to hit homers at a decent clip, but the majority of them have been solo shots with a couple of two-run blasts mixed in.

The bottom line is they are still not cashing in as much as they need to when they have moved runners into scoring position. The team is letting too many opportunities get away by either not scoring or only getting a run or two in what could be big innings when they have the opposing pitcher on the ropes.

The Rangers were an embarrassing 4-23 with runners in scoring position over the four games. That is flat out not going to get it done. It puts too much strain on the rotation to shut down the opponent and has to be remedied somehow as the team heads to New York to take on Aaron Judge and the red-hot Bronx Bombers.