Texas Rangers Rising Star Bounces Back in Second Start Against Rays

The Texas Rangers remain hopeful that this young pitching prospect is on the right track toward being a key part of the rotation.

Apr 6, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Texas Rangers pitcher Kumar Rocker (80) throws a pitch during the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Globe Life Field. | Tim Heitman-Imagn Images

ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers rookie starting pitcher Kumar Rocker knows his place in this starting rotation.

“I see two horses that lead in (Nathan) Eovaldi and (Jacob) deGrom,” Rocker said on Sunday. “They lead us, and we try to be like them.”

Rocker is getting there. He made a significant step toward putting his disastrous first start in Cincinnati behind him in against the Tampa Bay Rays on Sunday, a 4-3 victory.

Rocker didn’t get the win. But he did give the Rangers a solid start. He gave them a chance to win. That’s all manager Bruce Bochy asks for each game.

“He looked like a different guy out there, didn’t he?” Bochy said.

In fact, the only reason that Rocker left the game after the fifth inning was a hand cramp, something that Rocker said he’d never experienced before.

In his last start, Bochy felt that Rocker leaned too much on his fastball and that his pitch patterns was too repetitive. It’s part of the reason why he was only able to last three innings. He also gave up seven hits, six runs and two walks. He did strike out three hitters.

But he left his bullpen out to dry and he knew it. He didn’t want to do that again on Sunday.

Catcher Jonah Heim, who delivered a walk-off single, caught both games. He saw a difference.

“He was very convicted in what he was doing,” Heim said. “He was throwing all of his pitches for strikes. He made big pitches out there when he needed to.”

This time, Rocker managed to go five innings. He was much more effective, scattering six hits and giving up just one run. He only struck out one hitter. Most importantly he didn’t walk a hitter.

His 77-pitch afternoon saw him reach 97.6 mph with his fastball and he changed speeds all the way down to 75.6 mph.

He relied heavily on his slider, throwing it more than 50% of the time, and his sinker, throwing it more than 32% of the time. In fact, he only threw his four-seam fastball 9.1% of the time.

That’s a sharp contrast from his Cincinnati outing. He relied most heavily on his slider, throwing it 32 times out of 74 pitches. But he threw the four-seam fastball 23 times. He only threw his sinker nine times.

Along with that, his approach made a difference.

“I wanted to go out there and be loose a little bit and let mistakes be mistakes, and then enjoy the ones that go my way,” Rocker said.

The result? The Rays didn’t barrel a single baseball off Rocker in 20 at-bats. All six of their hits were singles and only seven connections were considered hard hit.

Plenty went Rocker’s way on Sunday. Texas hopes it’s a sign of things to come.