Jung and Eovaldi back, and Texas has 21 games to make it count

Josh Jung and Nathan Eovaldi are off the injured list, and the timing matters. The Rangers sit at 70-72, half a game out of first in the AL West and right on the wild card cutline, with 21 games left to play. This is not a team with room to absorb more attrition.

Jung is the bigger lift on the offensive side. In 42 games this season he's hitting .312 with an OPS just under .900 — the kind of production that changes a lineup's texture at third base. Ezequiel Duran has held things together in his absence and remains a useful piece, but Jung healthy gives Texas a genuine threat in that spot rather than a workaround.

Eovaldi's return matters just as much given what the rotation has been dealing with. Jack Leiter is on the 60-day IL, Jose Corniell is on the 60-day IL, and Cole Winn is shelved as well. MacKenzie Gore has logged the most innings of anyone in the staff but has been inconsistent, and Kumar Rocker has been a tough-luck 7-11. Eovaldi at 11-9 with a 4.02 ERA gives the Rangers a reliable arm who eats innings — and with 21 games left, reliable is exactly what they need.

The schedule will sort itself out. What Texas needed was bodies it could trust, and today it got two of them back.