For most of the season, the Texas Rangers saw their pitchers deliver on the mound without the backing of their hitters.

For much of the season, the New York Yankees saw their pitching and offense mesh together as the team surged to the top of the American League.

After putting together both elements, the Rangers hope to duplicate it while the Yankees attempt to bounce back from a rare quiet showing when the teams conclude a three-game series in New York on Thursday afternoon.

Texas heads into the finale of the season series with a 3.69 ERA on the year, but a .237 team batting average is contributing to a 17-19 record. After Jacob deGrom uncharacteristically allowed six runs in a 7-4 loss on Tuesday, Nathan Eovaldi gave up three hits and one run in eight innings during the Rangers’ 6-1 win on Wednesday.

Eovaldi was dominating, and the Rangers backed him by scoring more than five runs for the seventh time this season and first time since April 23 against Pittsburgh.

Texas saw Corey Seager homer and hit an RBI single after the shortstop was 4-for-31 in his previous eight games. Seager drove in more than one run for the first time in 11 games.

Rangers center fielder Evan Carter ended an 0-for-23 skid with a double on Tuesday, then hit a two-run homer the next day. He still is just 10-for-69 (.145) in his past 23 games.

“It’s nice to see,” Texas manager Skip Schumaker said of Carter’s progress. “I know the guys were excited to push across a few runs for Evo (Eovaldi). I think that’s the main thing, they’re trying to give these pitchers a cushion. … They’re trying to win the game and do whatever they can, and after the game they’ll try to learn from what happened.”

The Yankees have 15 victories in their past 18 games, but they were held down on Wednesday after scoring 46 runs in a five-game winning streak. New York finished with three hits, its second-lowest total this season, and scored fewer than two runs for the fifth time.

Aaron Judge hit his major-league-leading 15th homer, and he has 12 in his past 23 games. Cody Bellinger finished 1-for-3 after going 10-for-19 (.526) during the winning streak.

Following Eovaldi’s gem, MacKenzie Gore (2-2, 4.67 ERA) will attempt to rebound from his shortest outing as a Ranger.

Gore last pitched on Friday, when he allowed three runs on four hits in 3 2/3 innings during a no-decision at Detroit. Texas won the game 5-4.

Gore is 1-2 with a 4.20 ERA in three career starts against the Yankees, all with the Washington Nationals.

Ryan Weathers was originally slated to start for New York, but an illness prompted the Yankees to move his next start back to Monday in Baltimore. Weathers was feeling sick after his start on Saturday and was able to play catch but not able to complete his preparation for Thursday.

“I pitched, then went home and pretty much threw my guts out for several hours,” Weathers said. “I thought I just had food poisoning, but woke up the next day and was running a 102 (degree) temp. I was just pretty much bedridden for a couple of days.”

Paul Blackburn (1-1, 3.21 ERA) is scheduled to make his first start since joining the Yankees in August. He will be pitching three days after throwing 17 pitches to finish New York’s 12-1 rout of the Orioles on Monday. Blackburn has pitched twice since April 26 and has not thrown more than 43 pitches in his nine appearances.

Blackburn is 0-3 with a 12.00 ERA in six career appearances (five starts) against the Rangers.

–Field Level Media

The Washington Nationals will look for their first home series win of the season on Thursday when they host the Minnesota Twins in the finale of a three-game set.

While winning four of six road series, Washington has completed five home series thus far and lost each one. After a 15-2 victory on Wednesday, the Nationals have split the first two games against the Twins and are 5-13 at Nationals Park.

Minnesota is tied for last in the American League with six road wins. Only the Miami Marlins, with five, have fewer victories away from home.

The Nationals will look to right-hander Jake Irvin (1-4, 4.93 ERA) on Thursday while the Twins counter with right-hander Simeon Woods Richardson (0-5, 6.49).

Irvin, 29, won his first start of the season and is 0-4 with a 5.16 ERA since. After tossing 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the Chicago White Sox on April 25, he yielded four runs (three earned) in five innings against the Brewers on Friday. He allowed six hits and four walks to Milwaukee while striking out five.

Irvin is 1-1 with a 2.70 ERA in two career starts against the Twins.

The Twins have lost six of the seven starts made this season by Woods Richardson, 25. He had a 2.31 ERA after his first two outings, but it has ballooned since.

Last time out, Woods Richardson gave up six runs (four earned) in 4 2/3 innings of a loss to the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday. He allowed nine hits, two of them home runs, and walked one while fanning two.

“It’s just balls in the middle of the plate,” Twins manager Derek Shelton said. “He left the two balls in the middle of the plate for the home runs in deficit counts. We’ve got to continue to execute better.”

Woods Richardson is 0-0 with a 4.82 ERA in two games (one start) versus the Nationals.

After totaling eight runs in their previous four games, the Nationals exploded for 15 runs on 14 hits on Wednesday.

CJ Abrams had a grand slam and two doubles, and Brady House, Drew Millas and Jose Tena each had a home run and a double.

“I know the offense started off really, really hot (this season) and then cooled down a little bit, but I thought our at-bats were still pretty good,” Washington manager Blake Butera said. “So, it was good to see some balls going over the fence and finding some holes and have some success tonight.”

Abrams is batting .423 (11-for-26) with three doubles, two homers, six runs and 12 RBIs in his past seven games.

Millas hit his first major league home run since June 21, 2024.

“I think today was more of a momentum thing,” the catcher said. “You could feel it. CJ was going. Tena was going. Brady got his hit, and he also hit a nice one off a righty. So it was good to feel the momentum, and it was really contagious, to be honest.”

Minnesota, which had won two straight, was held to three hits on Wednesday. Matt Wallner had two of them, including a home run. He has four hits in his past five at-bats after an 0-for-19 slump.

–Field Level Media

It’s been an inconsistent start to the season for the Kansas City Royals, but Seth Lugo has not had a problem with his own consistency.

He’s certainly been good against the Cleveland Guardians at home.

Among the major league leaders with five quality starts, the 36-year-old right-hander will try to help the Royals take their four-game series from the visiting Guardians on Thursday.

Lugo (1-1, 2.68 ERA) has allowed more than two runs just once in his seven 2026 outings and has completed at least five innings in every appearance. On Saturday at Seattle, he gave up eight hits and two walks but just two runs over six innings of the Royals’ 3-2, 10-inning victory.

“I think that was one of my better located-pitch days of the year,” Lugo said. “I battled.”

Though Lugo allowed a season-high seven runs and a career-high 14 hits over 6 1/3 innings of his most recent home outing against the Los Angeles Angels on April 26, he is 2-0 with a 2.00 ERA in three career starts against the Guardians at Kansas City.

The Royals totaled 11 runs while winning the first two games of this series, but they managed only four hits during a 3-1 loss to Cleveland on Wednesday. Kansas City had won a season-high five in a row and 10 of 13 — following an eight-game losing streak — entering the latest contest.

The Guardians, meanwhile, snapped a three-game losing streak with just their fourth victory in the past 11 games.

“All of our games are hard-fought, but it’s worth it,” Cleveland catcher Austin Hedges told CLEGuardians.TV. “We got to find a way to split this series. … We’re gonna try to find a way to get a win (Thursday).”

Rookie Chase DeLauter has been a pleasant surprise for the Guardians, who have consistently hovered around the .500 mark during the first month-plus of the season. With two hits on Wednesday, highlighted by a go-ahead two-run single in the fifth inning, DeLauter is batting .514 (18-for-35) with seven RBIs during a 10-game hitting streak.

Scheduled Cleveland starter Slade Cecconi (1-4, 6.56 ERA) continues to struggle while trying to find a rhythm in 2026. The right-hander allowed five runs and 10 hits, including two homers, over 5 1/3 innings, but picked up the win as the Guardians beat the Athletics 14-6 on Saturday.

It was the third straight start in which Cecconi yielded at least four runs. He gave one hit over eight scoreless innings during his only previous start vs. Kansas City, a 10-2 Cleveland home victory last September.

Cecconi has never faced Kansas City star Bobby Witt Jr., who went 0-for-4 on Wednesday, just the second time he was held hitless in the past 17 games.

Fellow All-Star teammate Maikel Garcia had two hits on Wednesday but appeared to hurt his leg while sliding. Garcia, who got back on track after going hitless in the first two games of the series, likely will be available for the series finale, according to Royals manager Matt Quatraro.

Cleveland star Steven Kwan is 0-for-12 in his past three games and is batting .211 on the season. After getting the night off on Wednesday, he is slated to be back in the lineup to face Lugo, against whom Kwan is 3-for-10 with a home run.

–Field Level Media