RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 1 sourcesJul 27, 2026; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger (21) reacts as he circles the bases after hitting a two-run home run against the Seattle Mariners during the third inning at Globe Life Field. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images
The Texas Rangers scored seven runs while the Seattle Mariners scored three runs.
For as much as yesterday’s game felt like a bummer of a wasted opportunity, today’s game felt twice as nice.
It was the best of all worlds, really.
If you’d like, you can mentally pretend the Rangers won yesterday and took the series and just didn’t finish off the sweep today against George Kirby. Oh well, of course they wouldn’t beat Kirby, but at least they’d already won the series!
Or you can bask in the fact that they did bounce back from that tough loss and actually did beat Kirby and the Mariners and did win this series after all. It’s a choose your own mental wellbeing adventure and everyone’s a winner! Well, except for Seattle. And especially not George Kirby.
Coming into this four-game series, a series win felt like the primary goal with a series split an acceptable outcome that would have left neither team worse for wear. After taking the first two games, and coming within eight outs of nearly vying for a sweep today, the Rangers were tasked with beating the king of all Rangers killers Kirby in the finale with Seattle also trying to leave Arlington feeling better about themselves than should have been allowed.
Kirby, as I’m sure you’ve heard, has just flat out dominated the Rangers to an incredible degree with one of the greatest extended stretches for one pitcher against one team in recent memory. In 12 career starts spanning a little under 75 innings, Kirby had allowed 11 earned runs to Texas total. He was 9-1 against the Rangers with a microscopic 1.33 career ERA.
So that’s what the Rangers were up against with a chance to exit this series two games better in the standings than when they entered it while trying to avoid sliding back on neutral terms with just a half game lead over Seattle.
Turn out, Texas’ secret weapon against Kirby was Joc Pederson. The jovial DH appeared dead set on avoiding failure and ending Kirby’s rule over the Rangers. Leading off, Pederson hit a home run to put the Rangers up 1-0. After the M’s tied the game in the top of the second, Kirby ran into some trouble in the bottom of the inning when he hit No. 9 hitter Elias Diaz to bring up Pederson with two out and two on.
That was a big mistake. Pederson promptly parked a first pitch sinker that didn’t sink, a ball that seemed to drift forever until Mariners right fielder Dominic Canzone — ironically the man who hit the momentum-shifting dong for Seattle yesterday — ran out of real estate.
Suddenly the Rangers were up 4-1 on George Kirby. He is mortal after all. He can bleed. If he can bleed, the Rangers could kill him.
After the Mariners got another run on the board in the top of the third, the Rangers did indeed deliver the killing blow the next half inning as Ezequiel Duran took Kirby deep and then, following a Evan Carter double, Jake Burger blasted off on Kirby for a two-run shot that put Texas up 7-2.
By that point, Kirby had collected seven outs and had allowed seven runs. He had previously allowed 11 earned runs total in 223 career outs against the Rangers.
With Seattle’s trump card crumpled, and with Texas keeping Seattle off the board again until a run with two outs in the ninth, the Rangers did indeed earn that series win. As a bonus, they also claimed the season series with this being their seventh win over Seattle in the 13 games that they will play this season.
After defeating Kirby and the Mariners, any tiebreaker between these teams will go to Texas.
Player of the Game : Perhaps any other day Kumar Rocker would occupy this space after throwing 6 2/3 innings of two-run ball on just four hits, two walks, and with seven strikeouts. He was excellent and deserves praise.
Today is not that day, however, because Pederson bullied Kirby out of the building with two home runs in the first two innings, including the two-out, three-run back-breaker that was gracefully lofted over the right field fence. Those were the only two hits of the afternoon for Pederson but they were the tone setter for the Rangers in the win.
Up Next : The Rangers can’t rest on their successes in this series as they immediately travel to St. Pete to take on the American League-leading Tampa Bay Rays beginning tomorrow evening. Neither team has listed a starting pitcher as of yet.
The first pitch in Tuesday’s opener from the new and improved (?) Tropicana Field is scheduled for 5:40 pm CDT and will be aired on the Rangers Sports Network.
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