Rangers sink to rock bottom as home no-hitter deepens brutal losing stretch

The Texas Rangers hit a new low Monday night after being no-hit by three Houston Astros pitchers in a 9-0 loss at Globe Life Field. The seventh no-hitter thrown against the Rangers in franchise history and the first combined no-hitter.

This time, it was the underachieving in-state rivals who silenced the Rangers' bats. It was the ugliest loss of the year, and the first no-hitter in the league since 2024.

And that is saying something, given the way they gave away Sunday's game in Anaheim, 2-1. That was quite a debacle in and of itself.

But being no-hit at home by their bitter nemesis during the Silver Boot Series takes the cake. And it's even worse when you look at the pitchers who combined to send the team to 24-29, their worst mark so far this season.

Rangers were no-hit by a pitcher with an ERA of over 8 and severe control issues

Astros starter Tatsuya Imai looked like a prime candidate to be on the hill if the Rangers wanted to right the ship coming off a disastrous 3-6 road trip.

He came in with an 8.31 ERA, allowing 16 earned runs on 17 hits over 17.1 innings pitched. He also entered the game with the highest walk rate of any pitcher in the league at 16 percent. Including Monday, Imai has now walked 18 batters.

But these days, the Rangers are the kind of team that you want to face if you're a pitcher trying to gain some confidence and momentum. Imai ended up proving that he was wild early, walking four, but the
Rangers, as has been the case recently, couldn't take advantage of his wildness.

He ended up going 6 hitless innings before relievers Steven Okert and Alimber Santa took care of the final three frames keeping Imai's no-hitter in tact.

Would the Rangers have been no-hit if they had Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford and Josh Jung in the order? Maybe not, but this version with several players who are struggling is the one that will go down in the history books.

It's new low for the Rangers organization despite having been no-hit several times in their history

Last time the Rangers were no-hit was Corey Kluber and the Yankees on May 19, 2021 while the team was en route to going 60-102, the second-worst mark in franchise history. The Padres Joe Musgrove also pulled off the feat just six weeks earlier. Before that, it was April 18, 2007, against Chicago White Sox ace Mark Buehrle.

This combined no-hitter is even more embarrassing given the pitchers' resumes. It took Imai 97 pitches to get through six innings as he didn't have command of his fastball in the first several innings.

Okert, a 34-year-old journeyman, who has pitched for four different teams in the last three years. Santa was making his major league debut and retired all six Rangers he faced, capping it off with an ABS challenged strike three to Brandon Nimmo.

The fact that Nimmo challenged and lost to end one of the worst games in Rangers history was like pouring salt on an open wound. Rangers' fans should have known that returning home from a rough road trip wouldn't be the remedy they needed to bounce back. Instead, it was yet another chance to hit rock bottom.

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