SEATTLE - The Texas Rangers' September math tightened again after a 10-5 win over the Mariners on Tuesday, and the reinforcements that could decide whether that math holds are arriving on staggered clocks.
Texas sat at 72-73, two games behind the Houston Astros in the American League West and 1.5 games behind the Cleveland Guardians for the third and final AL wild-card berth, according to a Field Level Media report carried by Reuters.
Cal Quantrill worked six innings for his fourth win in his last five starts while Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford and Danny Jansen went deep - useful context, but the quieter story was who might soon join them.
Josh Jung began a Triple-A rehab assignment with Round Rock on Tuesday, Dallas Sports Journal reported, expected to bat second as the designated hitter at Salt Lake with a 7:35 p.m. CT first pitch. The third baseman has been on the 10-day injured list since July 25, retroactive to July 22, with a left calf strain.
Position players get a 20-day rehab ceiling, so the window is short and the stakes are not.
Jung's production when he left
July 21 against the Chicago White Sox remains Jung's last major league game. He singled and scored in a 10-0 win before exiting. Texas recalled Josh Smith when Jung went on the IL; Jung was eligible to come off Aug. 1.
When the calf shut him down, he was hitting .294/.361/.441 with 9 home runs and 35 RBIs in 92 games. His 104 hits and 23 doubles led the Rangers, and his batting average ranked fourth in the American League, Dallas Sports Journal noted.
Ezequiel Duran has taken most of the third-base work since. Jung ran the bases at Globe Life Field and took live batting practice against left-hander Robert Garcia last week, progress that cleared him for game action in Salt Lake.
The calf is familiar - it cost him most of 2024 spring training and four games in 2025 - but neither earlier episode required an IL stint.
Drafted eighth overall out of Texas Tech in 2019, Jung was a 2023 AL All-Star and the regular third baseman on a World Series club. He is a career .264/.313/.430 hitter with 58 home runs and 196 RBIs in 417 games. He and Texas avoided arbitration with a one-year, $2.9 million deal for 2026 and face arbitration again in 2027.
Getting him healthy for October is the larger aim; the immediate question is whether Round Rock at-bats become September starts while Texas is still chasing.
Eovaldi may skip the Express
Nathan Eovaldi threw about 30 pitches of live batting practice Tuesday and felt good, manager Skip Schumaker told Rangers Sports Network in comments relayed by Dallas Sports Journal. Another live session, rather than a minor league rehab outing, looks like the next step.
