ARLINGTON, Texas — After 13 games in 13 days following the All-Star break, the Texas Rangers needed the day off on Thursday. Regardless of whether they were going to be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline, they were playing tired.
Unable to take advantage of a front office that made moves at the deadline to support winning, the Rangers are limping home after a 1-5 road trip. They also lost another starter with Jon Gray hitting the injured list, and found out that Evan Carter, expected to help pull them out of an offensive rut, will likely not play again this season.
With that in mind, they did just get Josh Jung back in the lineup after four months and they have a couple of pitching reinforcements on the way. The big question now is: Can they take advantage of their returning assets and make a push to have a more successful second half? They will begin to answer that question as a home stand opens against the Boston Red Sox.
Boston Red Sox (57-50, 3rd Place AL East, 7.0 GB) @ Texas Rangers (52-57, 3rd Place AL West, 4.5 GB)
Boston after the deadline
Unless they have a blistering final two months, the Red Sox likely will not be able to overtake the two-team race between the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees in the AL East, but at 2.0 games behind the Kansas City Royals for a Wild Card spot, they are easily overperforming expectations and have their sights set on October.
With last year’s World Series featuring two teams who made it to the Fall Classic without winning their division, the Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks provided the blueprint and President of Baseball Operations Craig Breslow decided to get Boston some deadline help to try to follow Texas’ path last year.
The help came first in the form of a familiar face with James Paxton, who pitched for Boston last year, returning to Beantown where he already pitched for the team on Tuesday night. Paxton was with the Dodgers this season, pitching to an 8-3 record with a 4.43 ERA in 18 starts.
The Red Sox also secured the services of catcher Danny Jansen from the Toronto Blue Jays. The Rangers just saw Jansen in one game of their most recent road trip. In the two games since joining the Red Sox, Jansen has fit in quite nicely, going 4-for-7 with an RBI. The Red Sox also got bullpen help, grabbing Lucas Sims from the Cincinnati Reds and Luis Garcia from the Los Angeles Angels. Both are mid-3.00 ERA relievers that will undoubtedly augment a worn down Red Sox bullpen.
The bullpen help comes at a good time as closer Kenley Jansen is now day-to-day after slipping off the mound against the Mariners and tweaking his back. Boston is also awaiting the return of former Ranger Chris Martin and setup man Justin Slaten.
Most recently, the Red Sox took a series from the Rangers’ AL West rival Seattle. Since the All-Star Break, Boston hasn’t been playing their best ball, going 4-8, including some serious beatdowns at the hands of some stout offenses. Overall though, Boston has been one of the surprises in the American League and should be a fairly stiff test for the Rangers.
The matchups
Game 110, 7:05 p.m. CT - RHP Kutter Crawford (6-8, 3.60 ERA) vs. RHP Jose Ureña (3-5, 3.07 ERA)
Game 111, 6:05 p.m. CT - RHP Tanner Houck (8-7, 2.79 ERA) vs. TBD
Game 112, 1:35 p.m. CT - RHP Nick Pivetta (5-7, 4.47 ERA) vs. RHP Nathan Eovaldi (8-4, 3.38 ERA)
As Texas continues to wait for Tyler Mahle to make his season and Rangers debut, manager Bruce Bochy expects Jose Ureña to make the spot start on Friday to open the series, while Nathan Eovaldi should be ready for Sunday’s finale.
Ureña has pitched in several different roles for Texas with some success both as a starter and reliever. However, he hasn’t started since June 5 against Detroit, an outing in which he gave up one run in 6 ⅔ innings. His most recent outing was a relief appearance of 4 ⅓ innings in which he also gave up just one run.
Eovaldi turned in a quality start against the Cardinals, going six innings and giving up three runs in the only game Texas won on the road trip. With Michael Lorenzen recently dealt to Kansas City, and Jon Gray expected to miss an extended period on the IL, the middle game could be another bullpen game, with either Cody Bradford or Dane Dunning taking the bulk of the work, both of whom have extensive experience starting.
Boston’s rotation is more stable coming into this series as they will start with Kutter Crawford before going on to All-Star Tanner Houck and finishing with Nick Pivetta. Crawford has been roughed up for two starts in a row, however, giving up five runs to the Yankees last time out and six runs to the Dodgers the outing before that.
Houck had a quality start against the Yankees, giving up three runs on five hits in six innings, but was knocked around a little in Colorado, giving up 10 hits and four runs in six innings.
Pivetta, the most experienced of the three starters, did not have a great outing in Colorado, giving up seven runs on 10 hits in 2 ⅔ innings, but rebounded nicely against the Mariners, giving up three runs in 6 ⅔ innings. Pivetta has started three games against the Rangers in his career and holds a 1.84 ERA over 14.2 innings.
Texas needs to right the ship, especially with just 50 games to go in the season. They have a better chance at overtaking the tied-for-first-place Mariners and Astros in the AL West than they do at jumping the field in the Wild Card.
With mostly contending teams on the schedule the rest of the way, it’s time for Texas to show that the front office made the right call by not choosing to sell at the trade deadline. The potential exists for a playoff run, but, as the calendar reminds us that there are just two months to go in the baseball regular season, the Rangers are running out of time to fulfill that potential.
Do you think the Rangers will open August with a series win against Boston? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
