The Texas Rangers will bring what they can to the table as they hope to work their way back into the American League wild card picture on Saturday when they face the surging Miami Marlins in Arlington, Texas.
Miami will send Adam Mazur (0-4, 4.85 ERA) to the mound against Texas’ Jack Leiter (9-9, 3.82) in a battle of right-handers.
The Marlins (74-80) won the first game of the series on Friday, a 6-4 decision after Jakob Marsee, Brian Navarreto and Dane Myers each had run-scoring hits in the 12th inning.
Miami out-hit the Rangers 14-4 but stranded 13 runners. The Marlins also had to survive a Texas comeback in the 10th inning to post their fourth consecutive victory and eighth in the last nine outings.
The Rangers (79-75) dropped their fifth straight game and lost ground in the race for a wild-card spot. Texas is five games off the pace set by Houston and Boston for the final spot in the postseason with eight games to play.
Texas used nine pitchers in the loss, including two — left-handers Jacob Latz and Patrick Corbin — who could have started either Saturday or Sunday. Corbin, who absorbed the defeat on Friday, had not pitched in relief since 2017.
“You play the game,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said about the mindset of his team moving forward. “No matter what happens we all have a job to do, and it’s come out, play hard, play for nine innings. That’s what we’ll do. You know, we don’t know what can happen. It certainly was a tough one (to lose on Friday) but, you know, we’ll come out, be ready to go tomorrow.”
Mazur, who has spent the majority of the season at Triple-A Jacksonville, will take the ball for the sixth time this season and the 13th in his major league career. His first four outings of 2025 have produced bright spots but only one win for the Marlins, leading Miami manager Clayton McCullough to say the best is coming from Mazur.
“One, it’s the stuff,” McCullough said about Mazur’s talent. “How well does the stuff hold throughout the outing? The ability to throw multiple pitches in the strike zone if you’re behind in the count, and then as well as, overall, just the ability to fill up the zone.
“Can you get some miss? And it always is going to start with the ability to access the strike zone, and if you’re able to do that with multiple offerings, just gives you a chance to keep hitters off-balance.”
Mazur allowed just two unearned runs on one hit and two walks over six innings in a game Miami dropped 2-0 at home to Detroit last Saturday.
“It’s just a building block. Obviously, it’s not done, but it’s a step in the right direction,” Mazur said of his production against the Tigers.
Mazur has faced the Rangers just once in his career, allowing four runs on seven hits over four innings on July 3, 2024.
Leiter is 0-2 over his past three starts, including a loss in his most recent outing on Monday in Houston. He allowed six runs on five hits and a walk over 6 2/3 innings in the setback in which he threw a career-high 102 pitches.
Leiter has yet to face the Marlins in his career.