Texas Rangers option pitcher Kumar Rocker, suffer series sweep at Tampa Bay Rays
The Texas Rangers fell 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday, to suffer their third straight loss and a series sweep after optioning Kumar Rocker to Triple-A Round Rock.
Rocker’s last start was on Wednesday against the Rays, his first since coming off the 15-day injured list with a shoulder impingement that knocked the Vanderbilt product out for 37 games.
Rocker gave up five runs and six hits in 3.1 innings of work, the loss put Rocker’s record at 1-4 with an 8.87 ERA on the season.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy commented on Rocker’s performance, specifically highlighting the Vanderbilt product’s fundamentals.
“Stuff was good, it was really good, big inning got us again tonight,” said Bochy, “He’s just gotta slow things down, made some mistakes, and of course the biggest one is the fundamental of covering first base, fundamentals got us tonight. That’s a basic play that could’ve saved us two runs...compounded the damage, both runners scored, and as you saw, that was the difference in the ball game.”
To replace Rocker, the Rangers took Chris Martin off the 15-day injured list after the pitcher missed the last 14 games with shoulder fatigue and has gone 0-4 with a 1.83 ERA with a save this season.
This story was originally published June 6, 2025 at 1:46 PM.
