{"id":2437802,"date":"2026-05-30T01:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2437802"},"modified":"2026-05-30T01:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T01:24:12","slug":"rangers-royals-series-preview-how-to-watch-starting-pitchers-key-matchups","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/rangers-royals-series-preview-how-to-watch-starting-pitchers-key-matchups\/","title":{"rendered":"Rangers-Royals Series Preview: How to Watch, Starting Pitchers, Key Matchups"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Texas Rangers<\/a> and the Kansas City Royals will play the first of their two-three games series this weekend at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas.<\/p>\n

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The Rangers<\/a> (25-31) are coming off a four-game series with the Houston Astros in which they won just one game, including being no-hit by the Astros on Monday. Texas and Houston both remain in the AL West race, which has seen all five teams in the division remain under .500 for much of this week. <\/p>\n

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The division is starting to look like 1994, when all four teams in the division were under .500 when the season ended in mid-August due to a player\u2019s strike and eventual cancellation of the season. The Rangers led the division but were 10 games under .500 at the time. <\/p>\n

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The Royals (22-34) are 10 games behind the Cleveland Guardians in the AL Central and have lost three straight and seven of their last 10 games. The series is always a homecoming for Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr., who is the son of former Rangers pitcher Bobby Witt and grew up in the area. <\/p>\n

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Here is a breakdown of the series, including how to watch, the starting pitchers, Rangers<\/a> injuries and key matchups. This story will be updated if injury reports or starting pitchers change. <\/p>\n

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Kansas City Royals at Texas Rangers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Texas Rangers right fielder Brandon Nimmo. | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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Where: <\/strong>Globe Life Field, Arlington, Texas<\/p>\n

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Series Schedule, TV, Radio<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Friday: <\/strong>7:05 p.m. \u2014 TV: Rangers: <\/strong>CW33; Royals: <\/strong>Royals.TV<\/p>\n

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Saturday: <\/strong>3:05 p.m. \u2014 TV: Rangers: <\/strong>Rangers Sports Network, can be streamed on Victory+; Royals: <\/strong>Royals.TV<\/p>\n

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Sunday: <\/strong>1:35 p.m. \u2014 TV: Rangers: <\/strong>Rangers Sports Network, can be streamed on Victory+; Royals: <\/strong>Royals.TV<\/p>\n

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Radio: Rangers: <\/strong>KRLD 1080, KFLC 1270; Royals<\/strong>: 96.5 The Fan, Royals Radio Network<\/p>\n

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Starting Pitchers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Texas Rangers pitcher MacKenzie Gore. | William Liang-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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Friday: Texas<\/strong> LHP MacKenzie Gore (3-4, 4.42) vs. Kansas City<\/strong> RHP Stephen Kolek (3-0, 2.77)<\/p>\n

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Saturday: Texas <\/strong>RHP Kumar Rocker (2-5, 3.96) vs. Kansas City <\/strong>RHP Seth Lugo (2-4, 3.74)<\/p>\n

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Sunday: Texas <\/strong>RHP Jack Leiter (2-4, 4.75) vs. Kansas City <\/strong>RHP Michael Wacha (4-2, 2.69)<\/p>\n

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Key Matchups<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Kansas City Royals designated hitter Salvador Perez. | Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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Based on the starting pitching matchups, these are hitters to watch against those pitchers this weekend:<\/p>\n

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Kyle Higashioka (TEX) <\/strong>vs. Kolek, one HR, three RBI in two at-bats.<\/p>\n

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Starling Marte (KC) <\/strong>vs. Gore, .385 average, one HR, two RBI in 13 at-bats. <\/p>\n

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Danny Jansen (TEX) <\/strong>vs. Lugo, one HR, one RBI in three at-bats.<\/p>\n

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Evan Carter (TEX) <\/strong>vs. Wacha, .375 average, three RBI in eight at-bats. <\/p>\n

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Salvador Perez (KC) <\/strong>vs. Leiter, two HR, four RBI in three at-bats. <\/p>\n

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Note: <\/strong>No Kansas City hitter has faced Rocker. <\/p>\n

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Rangers Injuries<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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\"Texas<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n

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Texas Rangers left fielder Wyatt Langford. | Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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10-Day Injured List: <\/strong>OF Wyatt Langford (right forearm strain); INF Josh Smith (right glute strain), SS Corey Seager (lower back inflammation).<\/p>\n

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15-Day Injured List: <\/strong>LHP Robert Garcia (left shoulder inflammation), RHP Cole Winn (right arm fatigue).<\/p>\n

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60-Day Injured List: <\/strong>LHP Jordan Montgomery (Tommy John surgery recovery), LHP Cody Bradford (left UCL surgery), RHP Carter Baumler (right intercostal strain).<\/p>\n

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Rangers June Schedule<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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\"Texas<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n

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Texas Rangers center fielder Evan Carter. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

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at St. Louis, June 1-3; vs. Cleveland, June 5-7; at Kansas City, June 9-11; at Boston, June 12-14; vs. Minnesota June 15-16, 18; vs. San Diego June 19-21; at Miami June 22-24; at Toronto June 25-28; at Cleveland June 29-July 1.<\/p>\n

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Note: <\/strong>Rangers-Twins do not play on June 17 due to World Cup game at AT&T Stadium. <\/p>\n

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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.si.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Texas Rangers and the Kansas City Royals will play the first of their two-three games series this weekend at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers (25-31) are coming off a four-game series with the Houston Astros in which they won just one game, including being no-hit by the Astros on Monday. Texas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2437803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2437802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-royalty"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Rangers-Royals-Series-Preview-How-to-Watch-Starting-Pitchers-Key-Matchups.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2437802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2437804,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2437802\/revisions\/2437804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2437803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2437802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2437802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2437802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}