ANAHEIM — Few Texas Rangers prospects in recent memory arrived with higher expectations than Wyatt Langford.

The Rangers 2023 No. 4 overall pick hasn’t disappointed, especially in the second half of the season. And most notably, he has steadily progressed into the type of hitter the organization envisioned during a torrid final month of the season.

In fact, few Rangers have put together a better month than the 22-year-old Langford.

He added to it again Saturday in the Rangers’ 9-8 comeback win over the Los Angeles Angels at Angels Stadium. He hit his fourth homer in the past six games. Nine of his 16 homers have come in his past 30 games.

Langford is the first Rangers player with 22 or more runs, seven or more home runs, 19 or more RBI, and six or more stolen bases in a month.

Only four MLB rookies had previously posted similar totals in a single month, including Nomar Garciaparra (August 1997), Mike Trout (July and August 2012), Atlanta’s Ronald Acuna Jr. (August 2018), and Arizona’s Corbin Carroll (June 2023).

After falling behind 7-1 in the third, the Rangers added runs in the fourth and sixth before scoring twice in the eighth and four in the ninth to finish their largest comeback win of the season. The previous largest rally was five runs in their home finale on Sunday.

It was arguably Andrew Heaney’s worst start of the season, but he’ll be celebrating anyway. Heaney, the Rangers most durable starting pitcher with a team and career-high 31 starts in 2024, was charged with a season-high seven runs on a career-tying high 10 hits in four innings and dropped to 5-15 with the loss. Heaney, 33, however, earned a $1.5 million incentive bonus by reaching 160 innings pitched. He started the game with 156.

Adolis García, who hit his 25th home run in Friday’s win, left Saturday’s game after running out a groundout in the sixth inning. García came up limping on his left knee, which has been bothering him of late.

Garcia is the seventh player in Rangers history with four or more 25-homer seasons. He’s the fourth Rangers player with 25 or more homers in at least four consecutive seasons. He joins Juan Gonzalez (5, 1995-99), Rafael Palmeiro (5, 1999-2003), and Mark Teixeira (4, 2003-06). García is

one of five 5 American League players with 25 or more homers in the past four seasons, joining Houston’s Yordan Alvarez, Boston’s Rafael Devers, Toronto’s Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and the New Yor Yankees’s Aaron Judge.

Rangers right-hander Nathan Eovaldi (11-8, 3.96) faces Angels right-hander Jack Kochanowicz (2-5, 4.01) in the season finale at 2:07 p.m. Sunday.

You can follow Stefan Stevenson on X @StefanVersusTex.

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DALLAS – Saturday marks the opening weekend for the State Fair of Texas. 2.5 million people are expected to attend over the next few weeks. 

From food to rides, the fair has all kinds of new things this year.

It’s a well-oiled machine for Pizza By the Giant Slice owner Tom Grace.

“We’ve been doing this for 35 years at the State Fair of Texas,” Grace said. “We have six locations we operate out here every year.”

Grace’s son and about 65 workers keep the dough flying and customers happy.

“The State Fair of Texas breeds crazy thoughts and crazy ideas of food. People love to come out here and take pictures with the food they’re getting every year,” Grace said.

The new crazy food idea for Grace this year is Oktoberfest pizza.

“We start off with this base sauce of Alfredo, which is spicy mustard infused. It’s a nice little bite and not too much for those folks who may fear that spicy mustard, and then we have some German sausage, sliced thin like a pepperoni. We’ll put some peppers and potatoes on it,” Grace said.

The Oktoberfest pizza is topped with sauerkraut. For $15, you’ll get a huge slice.

“What we have here at our Gulf Coast Grill on Cotton Bowl Plaza is caramel macchiato fritters,” owner Clint Probst said.

The fritters are one staple bringing in the dough for Probst.

“If we have a really, really good fair and have a fried food winner, this is a semi-finalist not a winner, but if we have a fried food winner you could almost make doctor or dentist money out of just working the fair,” Probst said.

Rides are another big attraction at the fair.

“Oh man! We just did a ton of rides! I think a few more rides are coming up, maybe a few games, and a visit to Big Tex,” fair attendee Tyler Deakins said.

This is the third year the Deakins family has gone to the fair, including five-year-old Emma, who knows what her favorite ride is.

“Yes, the crazy mouth one. Whoo!” Emma Deakins said.

The State Fair of Texas includes 73 rides on the Midway, according to Senior Vice President of Operations Rusty Fitzgerald.

“We have kiddie rides for kids, we have the family-type rides, and then we have one of the more extreme rides, so you can pick your poison on that one,” Fitzgerald said.

One of the new, extreme rides is the Hip Hop, which CBS News Texas reporter Dawn White went on with Fitzgerald.

“If you’ve got a little bit of skill, and you really want to have fun and be a little wild, this is the ride to do it,” Fitzgerald said.

You still have time to have fun on the rides or 70 games. The fair continues through Oct. 20. It also features more than 200 vendor locations.

Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers is not expected to play in the Longhorns’ SEC debut game against Mississippi State on Saturday as he recovers from an abdominal injury, ESPN’s Pete Thamel revealed.

Arch Manning will make his second career start for No. 1 Texas against the Bulldogs today.

Ewers was listed as questionable on the Texas football availability report, indicating that he had a 50 percent chance to play in the game, according to the SEC’s terminology.

But the expectation is that Texas will allow Ewers this week and the team’s open weekend coming up before the Oklahoma game on Oct. 12 to fully recover from the ailment.

Ewers sustained the injury in the second quarter of the Longhorns’ victory against UTSA on Sept. 14, retiring to the sideline and then the locker room for evaluation before returning to the sideline wearing street clothes.

Ewers was able to practice with the team on Tuesday, but was limited by coaches on Wednesday and then again on Thursday, as the team placed more emphasis on giving him rest.

Manning played in relief of Ewers in the UTSA game, and made his first career start the following week with Ewers sidelined, leading Texas to a win over UL Monroe.

Ewers has dealt with some nagging injuries during his collegiate career, missing time briefly in the 2022 and 2023 seasons before the abdominal issue this year.

In three games this season, Ewers has completed 73.4 percent of his passes for 691 yards and eight touchdowns.

More … Texas vs. Mississippi State score prediction by expert football model

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