ARLINGTON, Texas — It wasn’t a complete exorcizing of the 2011 demons, but seeing victories by a baseball team wearing the Texas Rangers uniforms come against the St. Louis Cardinals sure felt good.
The Rangers didn’t quite enjoy the run barrage that had been characteristic of many of their wins in May, but they beat the last-place Cardinals however they needed to, taking two of three to complete a 5-1 homestand to open the month of June.
Of course, it’s never so easy as simply enjoying the successes during a long baseball season. In the light of all the good feelings that came from saying, “Hello” to the win column, one particularly dark cloud loomed over Arlington.
- Game 59: St. Louis 3, Texas 4 (W: Smith, 1-2, L: Cabrera, 1-1)
- Game 60: St. Louis 4, Texas 6 (W: Dunning, 5-1, L: Liberatore, 1-2, Sv: Smith, 11)
- Game 61: St. Louis 1, Texas 0 (W: Hicks, 1-3, L: Gray, 6-2, Sv: Helsley, 7)
Bigger than the series
The elephant in the room barged in, unwelcome, one day after the Rangers’ walked off the Cardinals in the series opener. It was announced that Jacob deGrom, the best pitcher in baseball when healthy, would be undergoing a surgical procedure to repair his ulnar collateral ligament.
Effectively, this shuts down deGrom for the rest of this season and much of next season as well.
In a press conference before the second game in the series, deGrom acknowledged how bad it felt to have to be sidelined during this incredible season. Having had Tommy John surgery before, deGrom was aware of how this whole procedure would go down.
The news of the surgery brings about an abrupt end to the October dreams for a union between deGrom and the Rangers.
With the news, deGrom ends his first year as a Texas Ranger with six games pitched. Across 30.1 innings, deGrom registered a 2-0 record with a 2.67 ERA. He allowed just two homers, four walks, nine runs and nineteen hits while striking out 45. The Rangers as a team were 6-0 in games he started, outscoring their opponents 38-18.
Since deGrom threw his last pitch against the Yankees on April 28th, Texas has put up a 25-9 record and owns the second-best record in all of baseball. A lot of the success of the club without deGrom has been due to the man that stepped up and took his spot in the rotation – Dane Dunning.
A dent in Dunning’s armor
Dunning has been outstanding all year -- from his time as a long reliever to stepping into the rotation, Dunning could arguably be considered the Rangers’ most under-sung, but also most important member of the pitching staff.
During May, Dunning made five starts and put up a 2.28 ERA. He didn’t allow a single home run over his 27 ⅔ innings and walked six while striking out 21. His ERA only jumped above 2 for the first time all year after his start against Detroit on the last day of the month, having given up three runs, with two of those runs inherited tallies placed on his ledger by the bullpen.
It was a tad ironic that Dunning’s start on Tuesday came on the day that the team announced the deGrom news. It helped the narrative that Dunning would pick up his fifth win of the season that night, as well.
Still, although he pitched into the 6th inning and earned the victory, it wasn’t Dunning’s best effort of the season. The righty allowed a season-high four runs and gave up his first home run of the year – in fact, he gave up three of them. He got hit around more than usual, surrendering seven hits while only striking out just one Cardinals hitter.
The Rangers’ lineup, as it has so often this year, rendered pitching deficiencies irrelevant. After being put in a 2-0 hole after the 1st inning, the Rangers responded with at least a run in the next four innings highlighted by a three-run 4th inning that saw Marcus Semien extend his hitting streak to 25 games with a double to the right-center field gap that scored two.
While Dunning gave up two more runs on two more solo home runs, before relinquishing control to the bullpen, the Rangers never relinquished the lead. Josh Sborz produced a standout 1 ⅔ inning, four strikeout performance, as the relief corps had a clean night giving up no hits or runs en route to a 6-4 Texas win.
A friend in Lowe places
In the calm before the deGrom news storm on Monday, Martin Perez had his best performance in about a month in the series opener. Perez, who ended May with a 6.91 ERA and came off of a 4 ⅔ inning, six-run dud of an outing against Detroit, fared much better in his first June start.
The lefty did what he does best and induced contact to make it through his seven innings, although the splits were a little reversed. Usually a ground ball pitcher, Perez got 13 outs in the air, as opposed to just six ground ball outs while striking out five.
Perez exited after just 88 pitches thrown and with Texas leading 3-1, leaving a prime opportunity for second guessing. But you could hardly fault manager Bruce Bochy for turning to Grant Anderson, who had been electric in his first two relief outings in his major league career. Anderson, however, fell victim to the Rangers’ bullpen curse of ineffectiveness.
Anderson, who was called up a week ago and had pitched a glittering 2 ⅔ innings with seven strikeouts in his debut, struggled through the 8th, allowing three hits, one walk and two runs. Although he made it through the whole inning, the 25-year old was charged with a blown save and the game was tied going into the ninth.
Closer Will Smith got the Rangers to the bottom half still tied where Texas needed any kind of run to end it. It was the top of the order that came through. Semien drew a walk and reigning AL Player of the Week Corey Seager floated a single over Gold Glove third baseman Nolan Arenado.
With two on, that brought up Nathaniel Lowe who hasn’t been as vicious with the bat as those above him in the order so far this season, but as the 2023 AL Silver Slugger at first base, he’s still a player that the Rangers trust with opportunities to come through.
Lowe bounced an opposite field grounder through the hole to score Semien and win the game. It was just the Rangers’ second walk-off of the season, but it was a great way to start the series.
Gray’s day wasted
The series finale saw another of the increasingly frequent Jon Gray pitchers’ duels. Gray was absolutely magnificent, dispatching of the Cardinals in quick and efficient fashion. Continuing to use the slider as his out pitch, Gray carved his way through St. Louis’ batting order, never needing more than 15 pitches to get through any inning. Dating back to his performance in Baltimore, Gray went through this game and recorded his 20th consecutive scoreless inning.
Then, in the top of the 8th, a pitch low and possibly out of the zone was drilled on a line over the fence in right by Alec Burleson for a homer, the only run that Gray allowed all night. Gray struck out a season-high twelve, walked nobody and only allowed that home run with three other hits. Until a 9th inning single, Gray never left a Cardinal on base throughout the rest of the game.
Gray enjoyed the second complete game effort of his career on 100 pitches even. Even though Gray surrendered that run, he lowered his season ERA from 2.51 to 2.32.
Unfortunately, as we’re not talking about the Rangers sweeping the Cardinals in this space, Gray’s performance was matched pretty closely by St. Louis starter Jack Flaherty, who went six shutout innings, giving up just three hits and striking out eight against the powerful Rangers’ offense.
Flaherty was followed by a trio of the Cardinals’ best relievers who each threw a scoreless inning apiece, holding the Rangers to just four hits total on the night. Like St. Louis, the Rangers struck out an unsightly twelve times as the offense had a rare misfire that failed to produce a run as they left nine on base.
But while Gray took the tough luck loss, it should not be understated just how incredible a performance he had in the finale. By going the distance, Gray also gave the bullpen an extra day of rest ahead of a showdown against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Texas finished this homestand 5-1, a perfectly acceptable mark despite another series left untidied. Next up for the Rangers is a marquee matchup between the two teams with the best records in baseball as they head to St. Petersburg to take on the MLB-best Rays.
Do you think the Rangers will be able to survive the rest of the summer without Jacob deGrom? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
