The Rangers took on the Royals, Red Sox, and Angels recently. The Rangers season began very poorly but these series would be defined by good starting pitching. The Rangers were worst in the league in ERA for the first few weeks of the season. Dane “Stunning” Dunning has looked elite for several starts in a row. Martin Perez looks like he found his #1 prospect form a decade late. Jon Gray looks decent. Taylor Hearn throws hard and eats innings. The bullpen has been surprisingly good behind them. Kole Calhoun has started to hit after beginning the year ice cold. His power has sparked the Rangers lineup.
Starting off with the Royals…
Game 1 – Martin Perez turned in a quality start for the Rangers. He is quickly going from the starter fans tried to avoid watching to one of the Rangers best pitchers. This will probably not last, but if it does it could be instrumental in the Rangers making some noise and scaring teams. Perez did not walk anyone in this start. He attacks the zone more aggressively in this tenure with Texas than he did his first time around. Kole Calhoun and Corey Seager had two RBI each. Brad Miller had two hits at the top of the lineup. Miller is only hitting in the .230 range, but he seems to get many of his hits in the clutch. He has been used as a pinch hitter frequently this season and is lethal in that role. With injury prone catcher Mitch Garver already hurt, Skipper Chris Woodward must find a way to extend the core of his lineup. Simply having Semien and Seager next to each other in the lineup with no one getting on before or after them is insufficient. The leadoff slot is one of the most important in baseball, and the Rangers lack a “true” leadoff hitter. Eli White can fly, but does not get on base enough. Adolis Garcia strikes out too much and walks too little. He also has a ton of power, making his skillset perfect for the 4 or 5 slot in the lineup.
Miller got on twice in his three plate appearances from the leadoff spot in this game. This was a big part of the Ranger win, despite Marcus Semien continuing his horrific slump in the 2 hole right behind Miller. Semien’s slump is dragging on worse than one of Pink Floyd’s acid washed ramblings from their early era. Miller was pinch hit for in his final plate appearance. Charlie Culberson, who destroys lefties and fields well, platoons with Miller. Skipper Woodward does his best to make sure the lefty Miller does not have to face lefty pitching. Since Culberson is pretty much only on the roster to hit lefties and the Rangers lineup lacks firepower, Woodward uses pinch hitters frequently. Brad Miller is his best pinch hitter against righties. Solak and Culberson are the lefty busters. Since Solak, Culberson, and Miller can all play a ton of positions, interchanging them mid game is a plausible strategy.
Skipper Woodward has been tactically aggressive. He frequently plays the matchup with pinch hitters. He is not afraid to put the steal or squeeze on. He is gussying up a mediocre product, like adding chicken and peppers to Kraft Mac N Cheese. The Rangers are 2nd in the AL in steals. Woodward might be a crybaby at times, but it shows he really wants to win. It comes off as sour grapes when he does things like complain about the dimensions of Yankee Stadium, or Tatis hitting homers against his mop up men; but these whingings show he actually cares. Woodward’s tactical competence have won the Rangers games and he is on pace to get a new contract at the end of the year. Win 6-4
Game 2 – The Rangers tried to steal the Tampa Bay Rays “bullpen the shit out of em” strategy Rays skipper Kevin Cash coined. The Rays are full of electric young arms that throw the filthiest, highest spinning breaking balls in MLB. Matt Moore was one of these electric arms back in 2011 when he dominated the Rangers in the ALDS. He is now a shell of what he used to be. He gave up 3 ER in this game. Moore was BRUTAL in first stint with the Rangers a few years ago. He has actually been good this season. Nothing was good about this game. The Rangers had four errors. The same amount of plate appearances Marcus Semien usually gets without reaching base this season. He did that again this game from the leadoff spot. Loss 8-2.
Game 3 – The Royals boast excellent speed and defense. They have a couple guys that hit a lot of homers. They have Bobby Witt Jr, the #1 prospect in baseball. What they do not have, as you might have guessed, is pitching. The Royals are considered a bottom tier team that will have a losing record in the worst division in baseball. The Rangers needed to win this rubber match.
Taylor Hearn started and was exceptional. These are the sort of outings from Hearn that leads you to believe he will come into his own and be an above average MLB starter that can eat innings. The same can be said of Dane Stunning. Their continued good performances are one of the most important factors for the rest of the season. 5 IP, 1 H, 0 ER for Hearn. Brock Burke turned in 2 scoreless IP behind him as the Rangers clung to a one run lead. Brad Miller had a big solo shot in the 7th to make it 2-0. Joe Barlow, the hard throwing righty Rangers closer, shut the door in the 9th. Win 3-1.
After the important series win against the lowly Royals, Texas took on the lethal Red Sox at home.
Game 1 – The opening salvo of the series looked to be a pitchers duel. Dane Stunning vs Nick Pivetta. Stunning throws a ton of sinkers and has been exceptional. Nick Pivetta is nasty and fun to watch. He is a righty with a hard fastball and a nasty curveball. Pivetta comes right at hitters and uses his big 12-6 Uncle Charlie to flumox them. The pitchers duel was living up to its billing through 5 innings, with the Sox holding on to a one run lead. Dane Stunning was then utterly failed by his defense. The 6th inning was a grotesque disaster that spoiled what should have been a classic pitchers duel. The Rangers had nothing left after balls fell in and rolled through all over the place and no one made a play.
Although no one was charged with an error, this is a great example of how having players like Nick Solak and Brad Miller on your team can be detrimental. Neither has a “true” position they are good at. Their “versatility” of being able to play 6 different positions at a below average level is sort of like Robert De Niro’s recent movies. Yeah he is in a lot of different things (positions) but they are all garbage. Solak and Miller are players known for their bats, but sometimes you need a guy like Mark Teixeria or Adrian Beltre to make a defensive play and stop the bleeding.
Sinker ballers like Dane Stunning lack the strike out stuff to get out of nightmare innings alone. Even when they are doing well, their pitching style dictates pitching to contact and getting the batter to hit it to the fielder. If the fielders are below average it can cost the pitcher valuable outs. If this happens multiple times in an inning, it can lead to blow up innings. This is especially true when walks are also included in the equation. After Miller and company got done letting down their young righty it was 5-0 and Pivetta was untouchable. Loss 7-1.
Game 2 – Rich “Dick Mountain” Hill opposed Glenn Otto in the second game of the series. Hill is an ancient lefty that relies on his big 12-6 curveball and veteran moxie to get him out of trouble. He is fun to watch and root for. He always has a 5 o’clock shadow going and is the very picture of the crafty lefty. Otto was barraged early and often. He was left to be firing squaded in a game that got out of hand early. The game was 8-0 after 4 when Otto’s corpse was mercifully removed from the sterile Globe Life Field that sits impossibly far away from a disconnected audience. The Sox rolled behind Dick Mountain. Loss 11-3.
Game 3 – In the same way the rubber match against the Royals was important to win, not getting swept at home by Boston was imperative. The Sox used an opener, Austin Davis, against the Rangers. He threw 2 scoreless IP. Tanner Houck came in after him and threw 2 IP too. Martin Perez turned in another quality start for the Rangers. 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER. Perez’s success seems like an aberration. He had a run like this when he left the Rangers for the first time. Ironically this period happened when he was on the Red Sox. Perez started the season great and it looked like the moment he left the Rangers he found his highly heralded #1 prospect of 2011 status. This “new form” was due to learning a new pitch, the cutter. It took the hitters a couple months to catch onto this new weapon being added to Perez’s mediocre arsenal. Once this happened, Perez’s coach turned back into a pumpkin and he was awful in the second half. Hopefully he has truly figured it out this time, and it’s not just a lucky run.
Kole Calhoun had a huge solo shot in the 5th to make it 1-1. The game was decided in the 6th. Marcus Semien had a double followed by a walk. Adolis “El Bombi” Garcia smashed a three run bomb to deep center to make the game 4-1. Kole Calhoun followed with another homer to make it 5-1. Garcia had another homer in the 8th to make it 6-1. Garcia and Calhoun hitting for power consistently could be the much needed antidote to the Rangers lineup depth struggles. Matt “MFB” Bush and Joe Barlow shut the door behind Perez. Win 7-1.
The hated Angels came to town to lord their 1st place division status over Texas. They left Texas in a hearse driven by CJ Wilson.
Game 1 – Jon Gray got into trouble in the first inning. Eli White displayed sloppy defense to exacerbate the problem and the Angels got 3 runs before the Rangers could even bat. The Angels new ace was starting, former Mets fireballer Noah “Thor” Syndergaard. Thor throws very hard and is notorious for not holding runners on base. Skipper Woodward took advantage of this and bat Eli White leadoff. The speedflee began the game with a single. He tormented Thor and eventually stole second. Marcus Semien then worked an eleven pitch walk. The fate that then befell Thor was the opposite of his fate in the insipid, banal Marvel films. Thor was hammered and embarrassed in the first act, failing to locate (Loki) his pitches. Eli White hit a second single in the 1st inning off of mop up man Jamie Barria to make the game 6-3. Jon Gray was sharp after the 1st. He left with a 6-4 lead in the 6th. Brock Burke came in, cleaned up a mess, and shut down the most powerful part of the Angels lineup in the next inning. John King and Joe Barlow put up a scoreless inning after him to preserve the lead. Win 7-4.
Game 2 – Mike Trout made it 4-3 Angels with a homer in the 7th. The Rangers exploded for 7 runs in the 8th inning. Adolis Garcia, Nathaniel Lowe, and Sam Huff were at the center of this rally. The icing on the cake was Eli White hitting a bases loaded single to left that Brandon Marsh ran right past. White ran all the way around for an inside the park homer. Technically it was a single and an error. But if you were keeping score you could have drawn a dagger to represent the play. Win 10-5.
Game 3 – The Angels had their two way fireballer Shohei Ohtani start a game they desperately wanted to win. He was good. 6 IP, 2 ER. Dane Dunning was just as good. 6 IP, 2 ER. Jonah Heim had 2 hits off of Ohtani. He has been exceptional while Mitch Garver has been hurt. The starters left the game tied at 2 and the Rangers broke the tie on a Brad Miller solo homer. Kole Calhoun hit another in the subsequent 8th inning to make it 4-2. Joe Barlow was unavailable because the Rangers have been winning so much. Matt “MFB” Bush came in and gave up a double and a homer to blow the save. He got out of the inning, but the Rangers were forced to go into extras for the sweep.
In the top of the 10th the gimmick runner was singled home by Mike Trout on a tough play. It looked like the Angles were going to steal a win off of Dennis Santana. Talented Angels closer Raisel Iglesias attempted to shut the Rangers down in the bottom of the 10th and salvage the series. Nathaniel Lowe hit a screaming line drive down the right field line to score gimmick runner Charlie Culberson and win the game 6-5 in walkoff fashion. Semien had 3 hits. This crushing loss for the Angels cost them the division lead. The Rangers now sit at 3rd in the division after leapfrogging the hyped Mariners. The wild card spot is tantalizingly close.
Upcoming Schedule – All Times Central
5/19 – @Astros – 7:10 p.m.
5/20 – @Astros – 7:10 p.m.
5/21 – @Astros – 6:10 p.m.
5/22 – @Astros – 1:10 p.m.
5/24 – @Angels – 8:38 p.m.
5/25 – @Angels – 8:38 p.m.
5/26 – @A’s – 8:40 p.m.
5/27 – @A’s – 8:40 p.m.
5/28 – @A’s – 3:07 p.m.
5/29 – @A’s – 3:07 p.m.
