ARLINGTON, Texas — To say that things didn’t go as planned for the Texas Rangers in 2024 would be an understatement. That point has been made often this season but none more as emphatically as this week in Arizona.
At the site of their greatest accomplishment as a franchise, the Rangers, high off the memories of champagne showers and hoisted trophies, were completely outmatched by the potentially playoff-bound Arizona Diamondbacks. Texas was outscored 20-4 and outhit 26-12 and saw a three-inning save recorded against them by one of their best postseason pitchers from 2023 with Jordan Montgomery allowed to finish them off.
The sweep broke their streak of consecutive series wins and sent the waning champs limping into a four-game set against the division rival Seattle Mariners, as far removed from their Fall Classic glory days as ever.
Game 145: Texas 0, Arizona 6 (W: Gallen, 12-6, L: Eovaldi, 11-8)
Game 146: Texas 4, Arizona 14 (W: Floro, 6-4, L: Bradford, 5-3, Sv: Montgomery, 1)
Early holes
Texas was playing from behind in both games in this series before they could even attempt to get out of the gate. After fruitless tops of the first innings in each day, the Diamondbacks jumped on starters Nathan Eovaldi and Cody Bradford, slugging 1.000 in both home halves.
Eovaldi gave up two solo homers, while Bradford got tagged for a double, triple and three-run homer. Bradford gave up another double and homer before the Diamondbacks recorded a slightly softer single.
Neither starter had sharp command and missed in very hittable spots. All told, Eovaldi got tagged for four earned runs, all on homers and lasted just five innings. Bradford was roughed up for far more than that, giving up a season-high eight runs on nine hits, going only 3 ⅔ innings on extra rest.
What was even more startling about the results was the fact that Eovaldi and Bradford came into this series as Texas’ two best pitchers over the last few weeks. Against a buzzsaw offense that has begun to propel Arizona back to the playoffs, they had two of the worst starts of the year for the Rangers.
Offensive pressure
The early deficits didn’t help an offense that has struggled all season to put consistent stretches of production together. In the first game in this series, that ultimately led to zero runs scored for Texas.
Giving credit where credit is due, though, Arizona ace Zac Gallen was every bit as sharp as when he no-hit the Rangers through six innings in Game 5 of the World Series, holding Texas to just two hits during his time on the mound.
Unlike that World Series clinching game, the Rangers never could get to Gallen in the end. The Rangers managed just one more single, an infield hit after Gallen was removed to start the sixth inning and the Arizona bullpen finished the job.
Texas attempted to claw back in the finale, however, with Marcus Semien homering and Nathaniel Lowe driving in a run against starter Merrill Kelly. When the D-Backs’ starter left with a hamstring cramp, the Rangers looked to have a semblance of a rally, but they were trailing big by that point; Semien drove in another and Adolis Garcia checked in with an RBI double, but zeroes were posted in the runs column afterwards as Texas would get just one more runner to scoring position for the rest of the game.
Help on the horizon
A flurry of activity was announced after the finale. As the players began to pack their things for Seattle, the franchise announced that No. 2 prospect Kumar Rocker would start the Seattle series opener on Thursday, Jacob deGrom would return to the Rangers’ rotation on Friday and Max Scherzer would return to the mound on Saturday.
With just under 20 games to go in the season, the news offers a brief, shining beacon of interest for a Texas team in need of something to be excited about after dropping so precipitously after their World Series Championship.
None of those three noteworthy pitchers can help an offense that saw one of their best stretches of baseball this season come to a screeching halt in the desert.
Do you think the Rangers can bounce back from the sweep in the desert and finish the season strong? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
