ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers spent the majority of the month of May away from home and finished with a highly impressive 18-9 record. They were 13-6 on the road and 5-3 at home during the season’s second month. With the season reaching the one-third mark, the Rangers moved all the way up to the league’s second best record.
The series in the Motor City ended up being a bit of a microcosm for how Texas handled their business on the road. Three series, three series wins, one stumble in each that prevented them from completing a sweep. This time, however, it was the unlikeliest of heroes that stepped up and helped secure yet another series win.
- Game 53: Texas 5, Detroit 0 (W: Eovaldi, 7-2, L: Boyd, 3-4)
- Game 54: Texas 10, Detroit 6 (W: Anderson, 1-0, L: Faedo, 1-3)
- Game 55: Texas 2, Detroit 3 (W: Vest, 2-0, L: Dunning, 4-1, Sv: Lange, 10)
The Rangers entered and finished the month in first place in the American League West and now go into June three games ahead of the Houston Astros, just as they exited April.
Even heroes sometimes need help
It’s not that this season’s found ace was terrible, he wasn’t even bad, but Nathan Eovaldi was just slightly less efficient than the Rangers have been accustomed to seeing. The veteran right-hander still gave up a grand total of zero runs in the opener. He just did it over only five innings instead of the eight or nine that had become commonplace in May.
The Tigers had a good game plan against Eovaldi, and “Evo” truly battled through 95 pitches in those five frames. This prompted the troubled Rangers’ bullpen into action earlier than they had been in the previous seven Eovaldi starts.
Even though they had been given a 3-0 lead, recent history shows that no lead has been safe in the hands of the Texas bullpen. On this trip, though, it was nice to be proven wrong. In the opener, a bullpen trio of Brock Burke, Jonathan Hernandez, and Jose Leclerc performed well in their four innings of work by allowing just one hit and preserving the shutout.
Perhaps the most encouraging effort came from Hernandez, who entered the series with an ERA north of six. Hernandez threw 25 pitches over two innings, giving up the lone hit over the last four frames. Leclerc, meanwhile, followed with a scoreless ninth in 13 pitches.
As noted during the last series in Baltimore, a couple of good outings by the bullpen must be taken with a grain of salt and a lot of wariness; but the overall effort from the ‘pen over the weekend was a refreshing reversal of trend.
A debut for the ages
Part of the renovation of the bullpen involves seeing what might be available at the minor league level. Funky sidearm righty Grant Anderson, who was selected after enjoying moderate success during stints at Double-A Frisco and Round rock, joined Texas after going 2-0 with a save and a 3.54 ERA in the minors.
Anderson’s strikeout numbers are the highlight of his statline and for a bullpen that has had trouble throwing strikes, that proved to be very attractive to the big league squad. Anderson had the highest strikeout rate in the Pacific Coast League, 38 out of 88 batters, good for a 43.2% clip.
Those numbers play. And on Tuesday, Anderson had a debut for the ages.
After starter Martin Perez failed to complete five innings, having been knocked around for seven hits and six runs while allowing four walks, Anderson was called on to get out of a jam with the tying run in scoring position. After ending the threat, Texas left the rookie in and he just kept getting outs.
Anderson didn’t just eat innings, he feasted on the Tigers. Featuring a highly unique delivery and armed with some sage advice from Rangers’ catcher Jonah Heim, Anderson tore through eight consecutive Tigers, including four straight strikeouts to begin his career. All in all, Anderson earned his first MLB win with seven strikeouts and just one hit – to future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera – over 2.2 innings pitched.
The advice from Heim? “Just throw it and see what happens.” What happened was something special.
Out of character
The series finale saw a few uncharacteristic things from the Rangers. The Tigers, as they did to Eovaldi in the opener, made Dane Dunning work harder than usual. The bespectacled hurler, making his first start since returning from paternity leave, struggled through five innings, throwing 98 pitches, but scattering 7 hits and eventually having three runs tacked to his ledger to push his ERA above 2 for the first time this season.
The Texas offense that leads the league in runs per game and had scored a total of 47 runs during the road trip were only able to muster two more in the Detroit finale. It was not for lack of opportunity – Texas ended the day just 3-for-10 with runners in scoring position. Again, that’s a highly unusual statistic for the team that is among the best in run scoring opportunities.
Lastly, it was the bullpen, despite Hernandez allowing a couple of inherited runners to score, that kept Texas in the game. Burke finished up Hernandez’s inning and went another scoreless. Leclerc came out for his second consecutive clean inning, throwing just 11 pitches and striking out one.
With May in the books, the Rangers return home to face the division rival Seattle Mariners with the summer months now on the docket. The offense, despite a quiet afternoon in Detroit, still appears to be showing no signs of slowing down and the bullpen is potentially turning a corner.
Thanks to the Astros refusing to go quietly, the AL West remains incredibly competitive, but the Rangers are showing they are equal to the task.
Do you think the Rangers will be able to avoid a June swoon? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
