The tension was palpable. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Not only the game but the young Rangers season was on the line.
As Dane Dunning entered the ninth inning of yesterday’s game, he was trying to lock down his first save in his career. He was only recently called up, getting the promotion to the major leagues off the strength of his stellar 5.31 ERA in Triple-A.
The Rangers have suffered some recent blown saves and ninth-inning meltdowns, and manager Bruce Bochy wasn’t about to let this razor-thin lead slip away. So, he stuck with Dane Dunning, who had already thrown two innings that game, back out for the ninth.
The first Sacramento hitter Dunning had to conquer was JJ Bleday. He quickly dispatched the Athletics centerfielder on one-pitch, which resulted in a fly out to left. Just two more outs, a seemingly short distance but hundreds of miles away in reality.
The crowd was starting to believe, yet didn’t want to tempt the baseball gods at this moment, so they kept their excitement internal. When the next Athletics hitter, Luis Urias, poked a single up the middle, a collective panic filled the Rangers ballpark. Not again. Not this night. Does Dane Dunning have it inside himself to dig down and get this save? After the recent failings of Luke Jackson, will the Rangers ever be able to find a closer?
His next Mount Everest to conquer was Sacramento’s all-world rookie phenom Nick Kurtz, a six-foot, five-inch monster of a hitter. Dunning’s first pitch was a knuckle curve, low and away. Oh no. The Rangers faithful, wanting to believe but also having seen failure all too often, again shifted nervously in their seats, this time a little more desperate and a little less believing. The count was now 1-0.
Come on, Dane, they were begging, pleading. Come on.
Then, on Dunning’s next pitch, time seemed to stand still. It was a cut-fastball that Kurtz hit to Rangers second baseman Marcus Semien, who passed it along to shortstop Nick Ahmed standing on second for one out, who then relayed it to Jake Burger at first to complete the double play. And just like that, there were three outs.
Dane Dunning had done it. He earned the save. He had nailed down the 13-run victory. He helped secure Jacob deGrom’s first win since 2023. He ensured that the Rangers best offensive outpouring of the year—their first double-digit game, their highest hit total at eighteen—was not for naught.
Dane Dunning earned his first major league save, a masterful three-inning performance in which allowed only two earned runs on four hits, only one of which was a home run, while walking just two Athletics hitters in his three innings of work.
In doing so, Dunning tied the legendary reliever Chris Martin, a veteran of 383 relief appearance, with one save in 2025.
On the night the Rangers found their offense, on the night a masterful Jacob deGrom found his first win in over two years, did they also finally find their closer?
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