00:00right now let's turn it over to texas rangers manager skip schumacher good morning sir
00:08good morning guys how you doing man we're doing well i imagine you are too and i know the focus
00:13has shifted to today's game getting a sweep would be great but winning a series already over a
00:19mariners team for the first time since 2023 and taking a game off of george kirby that feels like
00:25a big deal does it not well it feels like a big deal because of the guys that we faced
00:31right i mean
00:32george kirby and gilbert are uh three dang good and then we got woo game three so um not an
00:38easy
00:38task for our offense that means our pitchers had to uh post and um you know punch back when uh
00:44when
00:45needed and we definitely did that so it was a really good first two games now speaking of the
00:49offense going into last night's game would you have predicted a jock peterson infield single
00:56well he's been a part of both rallies the last two nights right i mean that's uh that's
01:00encouraging to see um you know we felt like he was getting closer uh you know with the
01:06probably the couple games before that before the uh the home run in the last game of the series
01:11against the reds um just missing a couple pitches uh you know the underlying numbers the exit velos and
01:17the walks and the um strike zone judgment it's it's all saying that it's a it's getting close and uh
01:23for
01:23so the last two games you know we don't win those two games without him uh in the lineup and
01:28uh so
01:29very encouraging can you explain skip how just getting on base changes your confidence it's a big
01:37deal i i had a hitting coach i said uh last night uh in the post game interview that you
01:43know when you
01:44see the ball kind of touch grass in the outfield they're called personality knocks or getting the
01:48ball through the infield that the 10 hopper that gets just gets through gets off a guy's glove and
01:54all of a sudden you look up and you're one for one or a guy makes a diving play and
01:58just misses it uh
01:59like you know rosarena in left field for jocks double two nights ago um it feels good just to
02:05get on base feels like you're producing and contributing um and it goes a long way not only
02:10for the rest of the game but for the next day that you know the the work that you're putting
02:14in
02:14um hard work equals good luck and the good luck is is happening for him and for a couple of
02:19the
02:20other guys and so he called them personality knocks my old hitting coach and uh they're they're
02:25definitely that i like that i'm gonna i'm gonna steal that one too i'm stealing chasing winning
02:29kevin and i'm yes personality knocks because skip does a great job with these yeah if you could just
02:33give us a cool phrase to say every week that would be fantastic well yeah there i mean i give
02:39you the
02:39phrase when we're winning i like those ones a lot better okay that's fair yeah yeah that's
02:44something i'd skip i was kind of i was kind of trying to figure out i know it's very early
02:47uh in the season right now and this team will have that kind of overall identity we'll figure
02:52them out at some point but it feels like hustle is the is the the biggest thing i see with
02:57this team
02:57it seems like there's there's never a lack of that in this thing that uh you know our my staff
03:06and i we
03:06just those that's a non-negotiable right i mean you give everything you can whatever you have that day
03:13um and some guys aren't a hundred percent right now but if they have the 90 percent then we expect
03:17the 90 percent um and i think that starts from the top you know i think you know cory seager
03:22and
03:22degrom and uh evo i i don't think they let anybody relax i think that you know whatever it is
03:28a major
03:28league game we're privileged to play in this uh unbelievable stadium with this in this unbelievable
03:33franchise um so you know you have a small window to give everything you got in your career and i
03:39that's
03:39the expectation jacob junis elite athlete uh on every level um and and how are you feeling with
03:47him kind of in that closer role right now well you do what you can with uh the opportunity that
03:54you're given and he has been um whatever role we put him in you know the first outing we gave
03:59him
03:59was multiple innings in philly dominated that then we gave him kind of higher leverage uh later that
04:05series and into baltimore he did really well in those uh spots and then last night obviously last
04:11couple nights in the closing role um i'm not sure what else you could ask for last night there was
04:16five straight lefties we knew that um you know if we brought in a lefty in that lane that they
04:21were
04:21going to pinch hit you know probably two or three of their guys which ended would have ended up being
04:25a right-handed lane so you um you trust your gut and with uh with how juno's throwing right now
04:32um it was a pretty easy decision for us and we knew that he was either gonna uh give us
04:38a chance
04:38because he pitches uh inside the strike zone with multiple different pitches uh we have a really good
04:44defense he was going to pitch to hopefully soft contact which he did and we ended up winning the
04:48game with him on the mound and it's pretty evident he takes his pfp is very very seriously
04:54yeah i think that's uh that's our our whole um our whole staff takes him pretty serious i think that
05:00uh started you know uh you know in spring training and um you know they have fun with it but
05:05also
05:06they take it serious and you know there's a you get a lot of opportunity more than you think in
05:10uh high leverage situations with those pfps and luckily we've been okay so far if another save
05:16opportunity were to arise today would junus get the nod or is that going to be situation situationally
05:22and lineup based well i can't throw him every day right i mean it's it's the sure it's we're still
05:28early in the season you know 10-ish games or so 11 games into the season so uh we we
05:34can't uh go you
05:35know three three games in a row i don't think right now we'll see how he feels night game uh
05:41and then
05:41into a day game uh i just don't see you know guys not too many uh managers in the league
05:48will go three
05:48days in the row in a row just because it's six months seven months season so um i think we'll
05:54see
05:54how he feels today but most likely he's down today now you told us on friday that you kind of
06:00will break the season up into 30 game chunks does that same kind of logic exist with setting up the
06:08back of the bullpen where it's almost like i don't know if tryouts is the right way to say it
06:12but you
06:13want to see how people do in high pressure situations and then maybe you'll have a better idea
06:17of how your leverage our arms might line up after the first month or so of the season
06:23yeah i think that can be maybe yeah 30 i i'd still like the 30 chunks uh 30 day chunks
06:28but i do feel
06:29like um the bullpen is different only because you don't have guys available every single day so i mean
06:37hopefully we can you know score some more runs here soon and um and it's more of you know we
06:43have this
06:43you know four five six run lead where we don't have to throw you know these guys into high leverage
06:49every single game um that's the goal we have we have faced some really good pitching lately um and
06:55and so i think you know they've been in you know we've been in these games where we've won by
06:59one or
06:59we've lost by one and so we kind of are chasing wins sometimes with our high leverage or when we're
07:05in winning games we're throwing our in high leverage it doesn't matter who it is um so that kind of
07:11can get tricky because of guys are down that day some guys are forced to throw in high leverage so
07:17um it's it's tough to say 30 game chunks with the bullpen just because of you're in so many games
07:24now i think we'd all heard some of the it sounds like positive reports but i wanted to know
07:29from you as the manager how are things looking for degrom and do you indeed and not anticipate him
07:37missing a start yeah he felt really good this morning i saw him today uh during breakfast and
07:43uh feels a lot better today which is always encouraging you know you have you walk into
07:48the clubhouse you're kind of you know waiting to hear some news and uh and yesterday and today and
07:53um real encouraging news today so anticipate him throwing in la what was what was he eating for
07:59breakfast oh uh that's up to him to tell you that's a personal choice what were you having
08:06for breakfast where were you what do you what did you have for breakfast and what do you wish you
08:10had for breakfast i mean i'm a creature habit so i'm i'm very regimented in what i eat every day
08:15and
08:15so it doesn't i don't veer off too often with um you know the egg the omelets with uh some
08:21sort of
08:22ground beef but my uh but my choice would be a donut but i always go with a smarter decision
08:29that is uh that is that is very smart right there talk with skip schumacher now we've talked a lot
08:36about plate discipline from the hitters but how about the plate discipline from the pitchers early
08:42on with the lack of walks allowed two on monday two on tuesday obviously not a lot in the last
08:48series
08:48how important has that been to the early success of the pitchers well it's been huge and also you
08:55know the home runs given up have been solo you know so that's that's been huge and even you know
09:00degrom and evo both you know gave up a home run but they were with nobody on and you can
09:05live with
09:05those you can't it's tough to live with uh you know walks walk and and then give up a home
09:11run and
09:11especially in the bullpen if we walk guys we're in trouble so you know we value um balls being put
09:17in
09:17play out we know when we're hitting and then we also value uh the ball put in play when we
09:22are
09:23on the defensive side because we trust our defense so much um and our and our pitching staff and our
09:29um coaching staff believe in it so it's not only the punch out the swing and miss but you know
09:34we
09:34want the ball on the ground we trust our outfield speed as well um so it's been very encouraging
09:40early on now you talked a little bit ago about jock peterson and how some of the numbers felt like
09:45he was about to you know break through and keep moving looking at the lineup today no josh young
09:51didn't see him yesterday how is he doing and how does the club feel like he's coming along and
09:57in terms of hopefully a potential offensive breakthrough yeah josh is uh you know nursing uh
10:04a little not yeah i want to say injury but um he's a little banged up so the next couple
10:10yesterday and today he was going to be off um hopefully be back you know at some point during
10:15the road trip uh in la um the good news is duran's been hitting um and duran is an exciting
10:22player
10:22that uh runs the bases creates uh in a different way just um create some energy uh that we need
10:29sometimes um you know in that lineup and i i really love how he plays so uh you know finding
10:35different spots to put him in the lineup um around the infield or even sometimes the outfield if guys
10:42need days off is uh extremely valuable um and also you know i'm trying to find ways to get the
10:48other
10:48guys in i haven't played sam haggerty in a while i haven't played uh andrew mccutche other than the
10:54pinch hit a couple days ago we've had potentially nine or ten righties in a row depending on what
11:00happens in la and how their rotation is set up so it's been hard uh i haven't really seen this
11:05run
11:06of righties uh in a while but uh but it all it all works out and get these guys in
11:10the game
11:11you know when we first talked with you when you got hired you said hey everyone gets a fresh start
11:15and ezekiel duran kind of feels like the poster child of that for me because a couple of years ago
11:21a lot of hype and then for a variety of reasons it's kind of tapered off how important has a
11:27fresh
11:28start been to like somebody like ezekiel duran yeah i mean he's he's been awesome ever since spring
11:35training he had a great spring training he had a good winter ball um and trying to find ways to
11:40get him in the lineup has been challenging but also um credit to him right of like trying to force
11:46himself into this starting lineup um and so yeah it is his versatility is great he can play all over
11:53the infield and the outfield um but i mean you put him in the lineup in philly he hits a
11:59double off
11:59the wall and helps us win a game you put him in the lineup against baltimore he helps us win
12:03a game so
12:04um he's a winning player he's won before he's done this before in a very uh successful way yeah
12:11he might have had a down year and you know what the year before year and a half whatever but
12:16you
12:16know what their guys have those years and that's okay it's sometimes it's part of the development of
12:21a young player of like you know what do they go through adversity wise and then how do they work
12:26themselves out of it to become a better player later and um we think a lot of zeke and we
12:31think there's
12:32a lot more in the tank uh you know the with the catcher position skip uh i know last night
12:38higgy was
12:39there and then today with the day game now you got jansen in the lineup is there a uh a
12:44back and
12:44forth when you look at the relationships with some of these pitchers and the catchers or do you just
12:48say no no they're interchangeable for all these guys or have they established this is somebody i like
12:53to work with um you know that the great news is no pitcher has come in my office and said
12:59i have to
13:00have this guy behind the plate um which says a lot about higgy and a lot about danny um i
13:05love both of
13:06them man danny has been so great i knew higgy a little bit last year i didn't know danny danny
13:12has
13:12been just amazing in the clubhouse um just for starters and then not only the production behind the plate
13:18but at the plate um what a sign that has been for us and um so really encouraged with both
13:24of them
13:25and how they're working with uh each each pitcher we got mckenzie gore on the mound today are we going
13:29for the immaculate game today all right no comment all right so and i do since you were talking about
13:39a day game jake berger and the red contact lenses do you think that will help intimidate other pitchers
13:47because it intimidated me yeah i don't care what color he wears as long as he gets hits and drives
13:52in guys man he can wear whatever he wants in his eyes i'm good with it i freaking love it
13:57well thank
13:58you very much for the time as always and the winds going for the sweep today we appreciate it
14:03all right thanks guys there you go skip schumacher right here on 105.3 the fan
Comments