Rangers' Skip Schumaker takes accountability for costly 'strategic mistake' in loss to Athletics

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Here’s the thing about accountability: You can’t expect it if you don’t accept it.

So, on Wednesday night, in reviewing a 6-5 loss to the Where-Are-They Now Athletics that was not as close as the score, Rangers manager Skip Schumaker skipped right over Kumar Rocker’s uneven outing and the offense’s mostly meh performance and went right to … himself.

“I made a strategic mistake,” Schumaker said, unprompted, during his post-game briefing. “This one is solely on me.” 

Now there’s putting a concept into action. 

Schumaker was referring to a key moment in what was then a tie game when he went to right-hander Cole Winn to face the A’s Shea Langeliers, perhaps their most dangerous right-handed hitter, certainly their biggest power threat this season and a renowned Rangers killer. Langeliers, the Keller High School graduate and former Baylor Bear, you may recall, had torched the Rangers for 11 homers in his still-young career, more than he’d hit against any other team.

Make that 12. 

In the sixth, with two outs and a runner on second, Schumaker called on Winn, who has been death on right-handed hitters since the start of last year, to enter and face Langeliers. The logic: He went with his best weapon against right-handed hitters to neutralize the A’s best right-handed threat. There is some sense behind that. Only thing, he didn’t need to even view it through that lens.

With first base open, he could have had lefty Jalen Beeks, who was in the game at the time, intentionally walk Langeliers and then made the A’s decide whether they wanted to let lefty Carlos Cortes face a lefty or, more likely, go to Winn after the A’s announced a pinch hitter. 

“That should have been my move, and I didn’t make the move difficult for them,” Schumaker said. “I pitched to one of their best hitters. My responsibility is to put our guys in the best position to succeed and I did not do that. That’s why it’s on me.” 

The game still might have gone sideways. Winn was not sharp and allowed a second two-run homer to Jacob Wilson, another right-handed hitter, in the seventh. It equaled the number of homers he allowed to right-handed hitters for all of 2025. 

Schumaker was once again having to ask a lot of the bullpen after a starter didn’t make it through five innings for the second straight night. And he had two new faces in the bullpen with rookie Gavin Collyer and vet Cal Quantrill arriving Wednesday afternoon to replace injured Chris Martin and Luis Curvelo. So, after Rocker walked four in 4 ⅔ innings and was approaching 100 pitches, Schumaker had to go to the bullpen. And managing a bullpen with multiple roles still undefined can cause a manager to overthink situations. 

On the other hand, the Rangers’ somnambulant bats did seem to spark when the A’s went to Mark Leiter Jr. for a second straight night. After Corey Seager walked with one out and Wyatt Langford singled, Jake Burger committed a deadly assault on one of the loopiest slow, hanging breaking balls in recent history. He looked like a slow pitch softball slugger waiting on the pitch, then drove it between the clubhouses in left field to make it a one-run game. 

An absolute MOONSHOT from Jake Burger gets the Rangers back in the game in the 8th💣

(via @Rangers | #AllForTX)pic.twitter.com/9tImtr0Spn

— SportsDay Rangers (@dmn_rangers) April 16, 2026

It was a majestic blast. You’d like to think it might have made a difference. 

Schumaker wasn’t questioning that part. There’s no use in questioning what takes place later in a game once certain events have already played out. What he was focused on was the moment when he had a chance to create better matchups for his pitcher and he didn’t.

“It’s a chess match; I get it. That’s part of this seat,” he said. “I’m just saying, in my opinion, I should have made a move to put our guy in a better position to succeed and didn’t.” 

And that’s how you accept accountability.