The Texas Rangers take on the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field in Denver on Monday night, with first pitch set for 7:40 p.m. central and Corey Seager out of the lineup while his back spasms are being checked out in Arlington.
The absence matters because Seager was not in the lineup Sunday either, and the Rangers still beat the Houston Astros 8-0 while scoring five runs in the seventh inning. That burst came against an Astros staff the Rangers handled without their regular middle-order presence, a useful sign as they turn to a game that starts a different kind of test.
Jose Quintana, who is 1-2 this season, is set to start for Colorado in a matchup that puts the Rangers' split against pitching types back in focus. Texas is slashing.193/.277/.269 against left-handed pitching this season, with only four home runs and 25 RBI in those games, while it has hit.238/.320/.387 against right-handers with 38 home runs and 138 RBI.
That split helps explain why the Rangers have leaned into a familiar pattern lately. Joc Pederson has been used as a leadoff hitter for the past four games, and all four came against right-handers. Pederson is a platoon left-handed bat who only hits against right handers, which fits the way Texas typically stacks left-handed hitters when it sees a right-handed starter.
Coors Field adds another layer. The ballpark sits a mile above sea level, where the air is thin and balls carry farther than they do in most places, a setting that can turn ordinary contact into extra bases. For the Rangers, Monday is less about a single lineup change than about whether their numbers against left-handed pitching can travel in a park built to punish mistakes.
Seager's status leaves Texas waiting on one of its most important bats, but Sunday showed the offense can still put together a big inning without him. What comes next is whether that production holds against Quintana and in Denver, where the altitude and the matchup both point toward a game that could look different from the one the Rangers just played in Houston.
