OAKLAND, Calif. — Texas took its August winning streak into Oakland to face a downtrodden Athletics team that is trying to stay out of the record books for futility. Instead of contending, the A’s are looking at what can help their future, having gone through a shockingly high number of pitchers (34) and using their inexperienced position players like a season-long Spring Training.
The Rangers, on the other hand, just need to keep winning to keep pace with the Houston Astros, who, during this series, completed a miraculous comeback from down 6-2 against the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles. That became especially important after Texas dropped the finale to see their winning streak end and the division lead dip to just two games.
- Game 113: Texas 5, Oakland 3 (W: Sborz, 5-4, L: Jimenez, 0-1, Sv: Smith, 21)
- Game 114: Texas 6, Oakland 1 (W: Scherzer, 11-4, L: Sears, 2-9)
- Game 115: Texas 0, Oakland 2 (W: Tarnok, 1-1, L: Montgomery, 7-10, Sv: May, 12)
Three Up
Rally Rangers – The Rangers found themselves playing from behind in the opener of the series, as Dane Dunning gave up three runs in the 3rd. The runs likely could have been avoided if Robbie Grossman hadn’t tripped over his own feet in pursuit of a Nick Allen liner to left field.
The Rangers, however, were not and are not the type of team to place blame and dwell on anything – a play, a pitch, a game – for too long. The next inning, Mitch Garver, the star of the night, crushed a double off the glove of A’s center fielder JJ Bleday to score two.
Texas would then take advantage of some poor defense by the Athletics to produce a couple more runs on outs, heading to their seventh consecutive victory. The Rangers’ offense has shown an ability in the last week to pick up their starting pitchers and fielders, much like they did earlier in the year, to erase deficits and erase miscues in the field.
New pitchers on the block – One of the best feelings for a ballclub is when a new, highly-anticipated acquisition does exactly what they were sought after for. Max Scherzer, Jordan Montgomery, and Chris Stratton have been as advertised for Texas thus far.
Scherzer had a much smoother outing this time around. The 3-time Cy Young winner’s second start saw him throw seven innings of three-hit, one-run ball, with that one run coming on a homer, which has admittedly been his weakness this season. Scherzer also accomplished his outing in just 89 pitches. He was relieved by Brock Burke, who is, without a doubt, one of the best incumbent Texas relievers. Burke threw two scoreless innings and finished the game.
While Jordan Montgomery took the hard-luck loss in a 2-0 shutout that ended the Rangers’ winning streak, he still pitched well enough to win. The 30-year-old took his 10th loss of the season and his first with the Rangers, but pitched six strong innings of two-run ball, scattering seven hits. Montgomery threw 95 pitches and was relieved by his trade deadline partner, Chris Stratton. Stratton mirrored Burke’s line from the night before, going two innings and striking out one in a scoreless effort.
Corey’s world – At the end of the day, when it comes to hitting, it’s Corey Seager’s world and we’re all just living in it. Seager continues to defy the notion that hitters need to regain their timing after returning from the injured list.
In the Oakland series, Seager went 5-for-10 with a homer and two RBI. He raised his season slash line to .353/.412/.657, and what’s sad is his shot at MVP honors are going to be drastically reduced by his two stints on the injured list. But there should be some incredible consideration given his contributions even while missing 40 games this season.
Three Down
Grossman’s Misstep – It was eventually of no consequence to the outcome of the game, but to Dunning’s stat line, it was the difference between potentially zero runs given up and three runs given up. The thing about “traditional” defensive stats in baseball is that they don’t ever tell the full story – maybe not even half the story.
Grossman falling over taking a couple of steps toward a ball in the opener allowed Allen’s line drive to skitter to the wall and allowed Tony Kemp to score from first. That’s not going to show up on a stat line as a miscue as it was ruled a double.
But those sorts of foibles have been entirely too numerous to be comfortable for the would-be designated hitter. According to the Fielding Bible, Grossman ranks as the 9th worst outfielder in terms of Defensive Runs Saved at -7. That means he’s 7 runs worse than the average outfielder.
By comparison, Travis Jankowski is 5 runs better than the average outfielder; mathematically speaking, Jankowski is 12 runs better than Grossman. Injuries have put Grossman in an unfavorable position on the field as one aspect for how the Rangers are missing several All-Stars.
With a whimper – After two exciting wins to start the series and bring the winning streak to eight games, a sweep seemed easily attainable and a nine-game winning streak reachable. It was not to be, however, as a lineup without Seager took the field on Wednesday.
Seager, going forward, is going to get a lot of rest as the team gears up for what appears to be an inevitable postseason run, but the lineup that Texas trotted out in the series finale was rough to say the least.
With Jonah Heim and Josh Jung on the injured list and with Mitch Garver getting a rest day as well, the lineup featured Leody Taveras in the five-hole, Sam Huff behind the dish, and Josh Smith at third base. The result was a scant, 4-hit, no-run effort from the Rangers, ending their winning streak and preventing a sweep of the moribund A’s despite a stellar effort from Montgomery and the pitching staff.
Jung and Hopeless – The injury to Jung’s thumb required surgery. As his team went scoreless against another bullpen game, a plate and screws were inserted into the rookie’s thumb to stabilize it.
It’s hard to imagine anyone else earning the American League Rookie of the Year award after Jung’s 22 homer, 67 RBI season, but roughly six weeks on the injured list might just give the award to Masataka Yoshida of Boston or Gunnar Henderson of Baltimore.
The baseball world is about to see just how valuable Jung’s presence on the roster had become, though. The Rangers are also going to see how their depth can hold up during one of the most trying times of the season – Jung won’t be back until at least mid-September, and it doesn’t look like the Astros are going anywhere, which means Texas is going to have manage without their could-have-been Rookie of the Year.
Do you think the Rangers will be able to weather the recent rash of injuries? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.