ARLINGTON — In the case of Mariners right-hander George Kirby, who threw all of six balls through his first four innings and appeared dialed in even for his supreme standards, Rangers catcher Kyle Higashioka said that “you’ve got to try and hit those guys out of the game.”

Then he paused. 

“Technically,” Higashioka said, “he threw a complete game.”

Technically, he did, though the Rangers strung together enough timely hits to break through against Kirby in a 3-2 series-clinching win at Globe Life Field Tuesday night. Higashioka hit a go-ahead two-run home run off a middle-middle sinker in the bottom of the fifth inning to snap what had been a dominant run from a pitcher who’s only ever stymied the Rangers in his five-year career. 

WHOLE NEW BALLGAME 👀😱🔁

Rangers' quick rally is punctuated by Kyle Higashioka's two-run blast to give Texas a 3-2 lead.

(Via @Rangers | #AllForTX)pic.twitter.com/7S9YmyLRbK

— SportsDay Rangers (@dmn_rangers) April 8, 2026

“That was probably one of the only good pitches to hit he’s given me in all of the times I’ve faced him,” Higashioka said. “I ended up putting a good swing on it and it snuck over the fence.”

It’s not like he throws many hittable pitches to any of Higashioka’s teammates either. Kirby had never allowed more than two earned runs in any of his previous 10 starts against the Rangers. He’d never lost any of them, and in his six starts against the Rangers prior to Tuesday’s game, he’d allowed just two combined earned runs. 

On Tuesday, he offered more of the same ludicrous efficiency, throwing 36 of his first 42 pitches for strikes through four scoreless innings. He threw only two balls to the first seven batters he faced. Right fielder Brandon Nimmo took one on Kirby’s first pitch of the game. Higashioka took the other one to lead off the third. 

“I tried to see a couple of pitches because he was so efficient through the first couple of innings,” Higashioka said. “But, ultimately, you’ve got to hit those guys out of the game. He’s throwing too many strikes to just wear them down. If you constantly take, then he’s just going to mow you down.”

The Rangers were more opportunistic in the fifth. Designated hitter Joc Pederson took a ball, a strike and fouled off two pitches before he legged out a leadoff infield single. He took second base on an error and scored one at-bat later when center fielder Evan Carter jumped on a first-pitch knuckle curveball and hit it for a single. Higashioka then fouled off one sinker before he hammered another for his first home run of the season. 

Higashioka, who’s split time at catcher with Danny Jansen, has slashed .357/.438/.571 in five games this season. He said Tuesday that he switched to a shorter bat — from 34 inches to 33 inches — in an effort to speed up his swing and allow him more time to make a decision. The 35-year-old turned to a shorter bat midseason last year but acknowledged that, as he ages, it was time to make the transition to a smaller bat earlier this year. Tuesday’s game was his first this season with the shorter bat.

“I just got them in,” Higashioka said, “really.” 

Just in time. 

Twitter/X:@McFarland_Shawn

ARLINGTON — It's fair to assume that most major leaguers have played a variety of positions on the field throughout their lives. That came into play for Jake Burger in the Texas Rangers' 2-1 win over the Seattle Mariners on Monday night at Globe Life Field.

On a night he gave Texas the lead in the sixth inning with an RBI double, Burger delivered what was arguably an even more important play for the Rangers in the ninth inning. With the Rangers holding on to a one-run lead and one out in the inning, Jakob Junis hit the speedy Julio Rodríguez with a pitch, putting the tying run on first base with cleanup hitter Josh Naylor up next.

Naylor ripped a 100.4 mph ground ball down the first base line at Burger, who quickly fired it to Corey Seager before receiving the return throw from Texas' shortstop to complete the game-ending 3-6-3 double play.

Big-time defense. Big-time win. 🔥

Rangers open the series with a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Mariners! #AllForTX

(via @RangersSNtv) pic.twitter.com/Wtyjh4WsSL

— SportsDay Rangers (@dmn_rangers) April 7, 2026

Burger, who has played over 1,700 innings at third base in the major leagues, put his third base-caliber arm to good use in a massively important spot.

"Jake has a really good arm, he's been playing a really good first base," manager Skip Schumaker said after the game. "That's not easy at all, especially with a guy who hit it really hard to him, in Naylor. It's a hard play to turn, Burger executed it perfectly."

When explaining the degree of difficulty of that play, Schumaker mentioned the runner can create his own lane and run on the inside track to get in front of the middle infielder. It requires an instantaneous decision from the first baseman to figure out whether they should throw the ball over the runner or around them.

"You kind of have a split-second decision to decide which lane he's in. Sometimes you don't get that split-second, but fortunately that was hit hard enough where I hit [Corey] Seager in the chest and we turned that pretty quick."

Now that he's a full-time first baseman for the Rangers, Burger doesn't get to use, in Schumaker's words, his "cannon" of an arm very much anymore.

"It's really fun when you get to use your arm at first base. I obviously have a lot of innings over at third base. [Rangers third base coach Corey Ragsdale] always tells me not to rely on it though, to use my feet. Obviously that's always a reminder in the head, but it's fun to show it off, whether it's a play at home plate or a double play like that."

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