Rangers Fall 6-4: Key Takeaways and What Went Wrong in Defeat

It wasn’t a game you felt too well going into.

And it was a game the Rangers lost.

They may have won that game. The offense had three baserunners in the first inning, loaded the bases with no outs in the second inning and only scored one run.

It was a missed opportunity along with the late rally as Texas brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth.

The middle innings were the downfall of the Rangers.

Rangers reliever Cal Quantrill, who opened (in what was really a bullpen game), faced nine batters over two innings and allowed a single run to former Ranger farmhand, and important element in the Nathaniel Lowe trade, Heriberto Hernandez.

Hernandez is one of five former Rangers (or Ranger minor leaguers) on the Marlins roster, with John King, Tyler Phillips, Liam Hicks and the Accountant, Pete Fairbanks.

The interesting thing is, Miami didn’t get any of those guys straight from the Rangers. Each of those five players was claimed off the Rangers by some other team, and then the Marlins got them for basically nothing.

The Marlins acquired Phillips from the Philadelphia Phillies for cash. Hicks was a Rule 5 pick acquired from the Tigers. King, Fairbanks and Hernandez all were signed as free agents.

The Rangers moved King and Hernandez, and those moves worked out very well for Texas and contributed to their World Series win.

Fairbanks and Hicks were traded by the Rangers in unsuccessful transactions for Texas. The Fairbanks for Nick Solak trade was a win for the Rays, though the Nathaniel Lowe trade evened things out, more or less.

Hicks, along with Tyler Owens, was traded to the Detroit Tigers for Carson Kelly at the deadline in 2024. The 2024 club was under.500 and Kelly did not pitch effectively for the Rangers. That said, the Rangers weren’t going to add Liam Hicks to the 40 man roster that offseason, and so would have been lost to the Marlins in the Rule 5 Draft anyway, unless there was something very Tigers-specific that happened once Hicks got to Detroit that wouldn’t have happened had he been playing the final month and a half of the 2024 season with the Roughriders that prompted Miami to want to select him.

Hicks has been a pretty good 1B/DH/third catcher for the Marlins this season, and you know, the Rangers could use someone like him on their roster right about now.

That said, I don’t think anyone expected Hicks to hit like he has this year (or last year when he had a.693 OPS in 390 plate appearances). Now Detroit, no way, no way, they wouldn’t have left him unprotected in the Rule 5 Draft.

If he were with the Rangers when the Marlins picked him in the Rule 5 Draft, I’d be more annoyed losing Hicks. I don’t know whether that makes sense rationally, but then what’s logical about being a sports fan?

Getting back on subject, Jose Corniell, just called up and making his second big league outing, came in after Quantrill.

In his MLB debut, the final game of the 2025 season, Corniell threw a scoreless frame against the Guardians before allowing a walkoff homer in the next inning, which caused the Rangers to finish 81-81 instead of 82-80 on the year.

Corniell, unfortunately, has two major league appearances and two losses. The second batter he faced, catcher Joe Mack, homered against him to give the Marlins a lead.

Then he had a Very Unfortunate 5th Inning. Two outs, runner on first. Xavier Edwards grounds up the middle what you assume is a ball that will be the third out, but instead goes into center for a base single.

And that set the stage for Owen Caissie to boom a ball over the fence in right field for the biggest momentum-swinging play in baseball.

That was when it was 5-1 Marlins and game was over. Hernandez doubled and Mack singled to make it 6-1, and this felt like the kind of game that would end with double-digit runs allowed and Nicky Lopez throwing the bottom of the eighth.

But it didn’t happen.Corniell escaped the inning without any further damage, surrendered a double and got a fly out to start the sixth before being relieved by Joe Ross, who went the rest of the way and kept the Marlins scoreless.

And it was almost important! The Rangers threatened late, got back in the game, could’ve made Joe Ross a hero!

Or at least the hurler who wins.

But the Rangers played a game in June in the Year of Our Lord 2026 and the three pitchers they used were Cal Quantrill, Jose Corniell and Joe Ross.

If you were a time-traveler and came back from the past and saw it on the box score you would say…

But no, someone murdered that fish. You know who you are…

It was nice to get the rest of the bullpen off for the day and have Quantrill, Corniell and Ross.The Rangers’ bullpen was already pretty low for the game, with Jakob Junis and Robby Ahlstrom likely unavailable after throwing the last two days, while Jacob Latz had thrown 31 pitches the day before and thus ideally wouldn’t have been utilized.

The offense had chances, but didn’t do anything with them until late. 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position. That’s not going to win you a lot of games.

A Brandon Nimmo double play ball, followed by a pair of singles in the first.Josh Jung walked, loading the bases, but Ezequiel Duran popped out to end matters.

The second was a single by Alejandro Osuna, a walk by Jarred Kelenic and a bunt single by Kyle Higashioka to load the bases with no outs. And as we stepped to the bat to Nicky Lopez, the offensive catalyst, we were feeling terrific.

Our excitement was rising. We were getting turnt up. We were on fleek.

Lopez did get one run home on a U3 grounder that put runners on second and third. Osuna was thrown out at home on a Pederson fielder’s choice for the second out. Wyatt Langford flied out to close the inning and lead foreboding posts about how the Rangers were going to lament their missed opportunities.

Texas did very nothing until the late innings after Sandy Alcantara exited the game. Brandon Nimmo led off the eighth with a home run to make it 6-2. Then in the ninth, Pederson hit a two out homer off the Accountant, who’s been out of whack with his debits and credits all season, Langford reached on an HBP, and Nimmo tripled…

And soon it was 6-4! And up was Josh Jung, who’s been amazing this year, as the tying run!

But that was not to be. Jung departed. The game was finished. The Rangers had lost.

Cal Quantrill’s fastball touched 95.7 mph. Corniell’s fastball registered 95.9 mph. Ross was throwing fastballs at 95.2 miles per hour.

Brandon Nimmo got a triple at 110.5 mph and a home run at 105.9 mph.Joc Pederson’s home run came off at 106.7 mph. Kyle Higashioka 103.8 mph groundout. Ezequiel Duran grounded out, 101.6. Josh Jung had a 101.1 mph groundout, a 101.0 mph groundout and a 100.0 mph groundout. His ninth inning fly out was at 97.1 mph.

Two down, eight to go.