ARLINGTON, Texas — If you’re a Texas Rangers (55-39) fan, it can be easy to get tunnel vision and focus on the struggles that the team ran into at the end of the first half. After an historical start to vault to 20 games over .500 by early June, Texas labored heavily in recent days, winning just one series between June 7th and the All-Star Break.
Texas went from a five game lead over the Houston Astros in the American League West at the start of July to just two games up by the break. Now the Rangers are fresh off a sweep of Cleveland to give them something to build on in the season’s second half. The challenges keep coming, however, with the AL’s top team coming to Arlington.
Tampa Bay’s First Half
The Tampa Bay Rays (60-36, 1st Place AL East) got off to a commanding 13-0 start to the season. Continuing further, they won 29 of their first 36 and vaulted well ahead of anybody else in the usually stacked American League East. They’ve maintained that lead since the start of the season but have fallen on some hard times towards the end of the first half, much like Texas did.
As is the case with Tampa, their pitching carried most of the weight. Despite season-ending injuries to Drew Rasmussen and Jeffrey Springs, the Rays pitching staff led by Shane McClanahan, Zach Eflin and Tyler Glasnow and anchored by Colin Poche, Jason Adam and former Ranger Pete Fairbanks pitched to a 3.61 ERA and 1.173 WHIP in the first 93 games of the season. Opponents were hitting .232 off their starters and just .221 off the bullpen.
Combine that with the .281/.351/.528 slash line that the offense put up in the first month of the season and it’s easy to see why the Rays finished the first half leading the majors in run differential at +149. They’re second to Texas in runs scored and, at times, have had their offense click from top to bottom, much in the same way the Rangers have enjoyed.
But after May 9, the Rays have played just above .500 baseball, putting up a record of 29-28 since that date, including losing six of their last eight before the break occurred as they’ve seen their lead in the East shrink to just one game over the upstart Baltimore Orioles.
What happened? Their starters were a full run less effective, seeing their ERA jump from just over 3.00 to just over 4.00 in June, but their bullpen ERA skyrocketed from under 3.00 in April to 5.73 in May. The Rays have had similar bullpen issues as the Rangers. And while Texas went out and got Aroldis Chapman, the Rays have pulled from the scrap heap and brought in former Ranger Jake Diekman along with Robert Stephenson and Zack Littell. The biggest competition the Rangers are going to have at the trade deadline for relief pitching might be the Rays.
The matchups
Game 95: 7:05 PM CT - LHP Shane McClanahan (11-1, 2.53 ERA) vs. RHP Dane Dunning (8-2, 2.84 ERA)
Game 96: 7:05 PM CT - RHP Taj Bradley (5-5, 5.43 ERA) vs. RHP Nathan Eovaldi (10-3, 2.83 ERA)
Game 97: 1:05 PM CT - TBD vs. RHP Jon Gray (6-5, 3.45 ERA)
The last time these two teams squared off was in St. Petersburg immediately after the series in which Texas reached their season high-water mark of 20 games above .500 at 40-20. Tampa would take two of three from the Rangers with Texas taking the middle game to avoid a sweep.
Texas faced Tyler Glasnow, Taj Bradley and Shane McClanahan in that series which will be familiar this week. McClanahan and Bradley will pitch for Tampa Bay again. Glasnow was slated to start the second half of the season in Kansas City, but, because of a postponement, had to pitch the first half of a double-header on Saturday. The Rays turned to their bullpen for the second game of the double dip, which means Tampa’s starter for Wednesday is up in the air.
McClanahan will oppose Dane Dunning to start the series on Monday night. This will be McClanahan’s first appearance since being placed on the 15-day IL with back tightness on June 30. He was originally supposed to throw in the finale in Kansas City on Sunday, but the rain postponement pushed him to Texas.
The last time McClanahan faced the Rangers, Texas actually got to him for three runs, marking only the second time up to that point that the Rays’ ace had given up more than two runs all year.
The Rangers’ bullpen and offense failed them that day though, and they would lose to Tampa Bay, 7-3. Dunning was last seen in the last game of the first half, a losing effort against the Nationals, in which he gave up four runs on seven hits in 5 ⅔ innings. It was far from his sharpest start, and the usually stoic Dunning was seen showing a bit of emotion after being removed from that game. Dunning did not face the Rays back in June.
The second game of the series will see Taj Bradley match up against Rangers’ ace Nathan Eovaldi. Bradley was the starter in the one game Texas won back in Tampa Bay, giving up four earned runs on four hits in the losing effort. Bradley hasn’t pitched much better since then, making it out of the 5th just once since facing the Rangers; incidentally, that start, against the Orioles, has been the only time that the Tampa righty has completed six innings of work all year.
Eovaldi, on the other hand, is likely itching to kick off his second half, after his last start, 10 days ago against Boston, didn’t go as planned. The All-Star righty gave up four earned runs on five hits and only struck out three while walking a season-high matching four for the usually free pass adverse hurler.
Eovaldi tossed a scoreless inning at the All-Star game, allowing two hits and striking out one in the second inning.
The finale on Wednesday afternoon will see Jon Gray make his second start of the second half. Against the Guardians on Friday, Gray allowed four runs, but both came in the 3rd inning. Gray surrendered two two-run home runs to the Naylor brothers Bo and Josh. Aside from that, Gray went six innings and helped Texas stay in the game long enough for the offense to fire up for 12 unanswered runs in a 12-4 win.
The Rays took two of three from the Royals over the weekend and now have a young and hungry Baltimore team breathing down their necks. The Rangers swept Cleveland which increased their lead over the Astros to three games. Neither team is in a position to relax, and this will be one of the last benchmark series for both teams before making additional moves at the trade deadline.
Do you think the Rangers will get the better of the Rays in their second matchup? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.