Texas Rangers Reveal Why Young Pitcher Was Pulled Early From Strong Start

The Texas Rangers took their young starter out of the game after five innings even though he was dominating.

Michael Brauner | Apr 2, 2025

Apr 2, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher Jack Leiter (35) pitches in the second inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. / Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

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Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers earned a second consecutive 1-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in what was yet another clinic from the pitching staff.

While Nathan Eovaldi threw a rare early-season complete game shutout on Tuesday, it was more of a committee situation on Wednesday even though they got another tremendous start from one of the key pieces of their rotation.

After a rough debut last year, 24-year-old right-hander Jack Leiter is off to a tremendous start and dominated the Reds lineup en route to five shutout innings where he gave up just one hit and struck out six.

When Leiter did not return for the sixth inning however, the five alarm panic button immediately sat in over the Rangers fanbase as wild theories started circulating as to why he was pulled from the game early despite showing no signs of slowing down.

Though fans have a tendency to immediately think the worst, as first reported by Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News, Leiter simply had a blister on his pitching hand and was pulled from the game solely as a precaution.

Now through two starts this season and off to a 2-0 record, Leiter has posted an ERA of 0.90 along with a WHIP of 0.70, striking out 10 hitters in 10 innings pitched.

Looking like an entirely new version of himself and finally appearing as the Blue Chip prospect he looked to be, an emergence from Leiter is going to go a long way towards raising the overall ceiling of the starting rotation.

Despite some early and untimely injuries, the Texas rotation looks dominant and ready to make another playoff push after a disappointing 2024 season.

Leiter is going to be a massive part of making that happen, and while it was scary to see him pulled on Wednesday, fans can breathe a sigh of relief with the knowledge that he is going to be fine.

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