Texas Rangers Morning Rundown: Jack (Leiter) is back as Rangers play two

The second overall pick of the 2021 draft will make his fourth career MLB start tonight at Chicago in Game 2 of the Texas Rangers’ doubleheader.

The Texas Rangers went nearly two years without a rainout, and now they’ve been rained out twice in the past month.

The latest came Tuesday night when, after four pitches, the skies above Guarantee Rate Field opened and didn’t close until the opener of a three-game series against the White Sox was called off.

The teams will play a doubleheader today, starting at 4 p.m. Left-hander Andrew Heaney, Tuesday’s scheduled starter, will start Game 1, and Jack Leiter will return to a big-league mound for Game 2.

Each team is also permitted to add an extra player, who is almost always a pitcher. Daniel Robert and Owen White are on the 40-man roster, and so is Marc Church. He’s pitching only a couple of times a week after missing much of the season with an oblique injury, he might not be an option.

Leiter, though, is the story entering the day, at least on the big-league side. He will be making his fourth start in the majors on his normal day, and the past two at Triple A Round Rock were terrific.

He found a little extra zip on his fastball after a mini-break, and his slider was a wipeout pitch. Most importantly, he was commanding them in the strikeout and putting hitters away.

An inability to do that is what proved most costly to him in his first two MLB starts. In the third, he lost the strike zone. If he can keep hitters from extending at-bats, his pitch count will stay low and he will have less traffic on the bases.

That’s the ingredient for having big-league success, which will build confidence. He needs that as much as anything. Something else that will help him gain confidence is staying in the majors for the rest of the season.

It’s a big deal when a player doesn’t have to look over his shoulder, waiting for a coach to come along to send him back to the majors. Leiter would be able to get comfortable staying with the Rangers for the rest of the season and have the chance to get a better field for life in the majors.

With Max Scherzer still down and running out of time to return this season, the Rangers have a need for Leiter. He has a need for them.

Another good deGrom outing

Right-hander Jacob deGrom tossed two perfect innings Tuesday night for Triple A Round Rock and said that his performance was better than his rehab debut last week at Double A Frisco.

The two-time Cy Young winner needed only 24 pitches to record six outs, two of them via strikeout. He then went to the bullpen to reach his pitch count while another rehabbed, Josh Sborz, took over in the game.

“It was definitely better than my first one,” deGrom told reporters. “I felt like I was throwing the ball down really well, which is what I’ve been trying to do. I think that’s probably the last thing to come, just being able to locate the ball down on the glove side. That’s mainly how I pitched tonight. I felt really good doing that. I really had one bad slider that they hit to the wall, but everything else, it felt like it was really good.”

The next step with deGrom is to be determined, but he could be ready to go again Sunday if he stays on normal rest. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to pitch in the minors again until Tuesday, as all minor-league teams have Mondays off.

The Rangers initially mapped out four rehab starts for deGrom and targeted the second week of September for his 2024 debut. He again reiterated his desire/need to pitch in the majors this season, regardless of where the Rangers are in the standings.

While deGrom will likely return to Arlington today, Round Rock will be hosting another star-studded pitching affair tonight as Kumar Rocker makes his Triple A debut. He will be opposed by Yoshinobu Yamamato, the Dodgers’ right-hander who was signed from Japan in the offseason.

DLLS stuff

Today is Day Three of DLLS, the new all-digital all-sports network covering the four major professional teams. You can become a Diehard member here.

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If you aren’t aware, DLLS does a daily podcast for each of the four teams. The sweet spot for the DLLS Rangers Podcast this week has been 1:30 p.m., though that might change when the team is at home so that I can get to Globe Life Field in time for the clubhouse opening.

If you have any questions, email me at jwilson@alldlls.com. We want Rangers fans to interact with us during our live shows.

Doggy video!

Always a good time at the dog park. Enjoy.

Jeff Wilson, jwilson@alldlls.com