First pitch is 1:35 PM CT on Thursday, June 18 — a getaway-day matinee to wrap a 3-game set the Rangers built around a Dallas Cowboys theme night earlier in the week. Probable starters haven't been locked in publicly yet, so the pitcher card above is the cleanest read on who's actually taking the ball. The bigger story going in is who isn't playing. Corey Seager has sat 3 straight with mild concussion symptoms after a home-plate collision with Royals catcher Carter Jensen on June 11, and manager Skip Schumaker has been careful not to commit to a return date. Evan Carter (oblique) and Michael Helman (hand) are both on the 10-day IL, which has gutted the Rangers' outfield depth, and Danny Jansen is still down at catcher. It's a lot of names to be missing in a game you'd otherwise feel good about hosting. The Twins aren't exactly whole either. Pablo Lopez, Bailey Ober, and David Festa are all on the shelf, which is why Joe Ryan has been carrying so much of the rotation water — he's been the steady hand, including a recent 6-inning, 1-run, 9-strikeout outing that's about as clean as it gets. Walker Jenkins is inching toward a rehab assignment but won't help here. If the Twins are going to crawl back into the AL Central picture, it starts with their healthy arms outpitching whoever Texas runs out behind the injuries. Form-wise, both teams are basically rowing in place. Minnesota took 2 of 3 from St. Louis at home to finish 3-2 over its last 5. Texas went 3-2 on a road trip through Kansas City and Boston, but the body of work included a 10-1 beatdown by the Red Sox that's hard to unsee. This is a series finale between teams whose ceilings keep getting raised and lowered by the trainer's room. The game-within-the-game on Thursday is the Twins' lineup against a Seager-less Rangers infield. Texas can still hit — they put up 6 on the Red Sox in the trip finale — but the margin without their best bat is thin, and a 1:35 start after a Wednesday off-day means whichever bullpen blinks first probably loses. Not the prettiest matchup on the slate, but for two teams trying to climb back to .500 before the All-Star break, every series finale starts to matter a little more.