DALLAS — The Texas Rangers got off to a blazing start to their campaign with a sweep against the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies, but the second series of the season featured the first losses of the year for Texas.
After dropping two games in row to kick off the series against the Baltimore Orioles, the Rangers grabbed the finale backed by a sterling effort from ace Jacob deGrom to finish their homestand at an encouraging 4-2.
Here are some takeaways from what transpired against Baltimore:
Hard luck and rough times
It was encouraging to see Jon Gray perform the way he did in the series opener. Yes, he ended up the team’s first losing pitcher in 2023, but threw the ball quite well. Gray ended up going 6 ⅓ innings on 97 pitches while giving up two solo home runs, and just four hits total while striking out seven and walking two in the 2-0 loss on Monday night.
Pay strong attention to the 97 pitches and 6+ innings – last year, as the Opening Day starter, Gray only lasted four innings before an injury took him out. It’s not Gray’s fault that Texas couldn’t muster any runs of support; the 31-year old did his job and kept the team in the game.
On the other hand, newly-acquired starter Andrew Heaney put Texas in a hole pretty early on in the second game of the series on Tuesday. The lefty, who was looking to build on a breakout season with the Los Angeles Dodgers after signing with the Rangers over the winter, was slotted in as the No. 5 starter in the rotation but struggled in his first outing.
A danger-filled 1st inning provided a clue as to what Heaney was in as he gave up a 5-spot in the 2nd and then two more in the 3rd inning, which he would not escape. The southpaw, who sat low-90s with his fastballs, wasn’t getting the volume of strikeouts that he enjoyed last season, finishing with just two after averaging 13.6 per 9 innings in 2022.
In the end, Heaney lasted all of 2 ⅔ innings and threw only 69 pitches while getting tagged for all seven runs in the 7-2 loss.
Extinguished
Somewhere between Saturday afternoon and Sunday night, the Rangers’ bats turned up missing. Sure, they won a 2-1 affair against Philadelphia to wrap things up on Sunday, but with eight hits on the night, one might feel that the run total could have been a little greater. But not to worry, a matchup with an inexperienced Baltimore team would fix that, right?
In the series opener against the Orioles, by all rights, the Texas team that scored 27 runs in the season’s first two games should have been no-hit. The only official knock that they managed to muster was an infield dribbler by Josh Jung in the bottom of the 2nd on Monday that could have been ruled an error. The Rangers also earned a walk on the evening but that was it for the offense.
In the second game of the series, Baltimore exploited the approach that made Texas successful against Philadelphia. The Rangers aggressively sat fastball against the Phillies and they attempted the same strategy again. Tuesday night’s starter for the O’s, Kyle Gibson, offered a lot of secondary pitches and worked the corners and edges of the strike zone.
The former Rangers All-Star Gibson had two big misses over the middle of the plate that went for solo homers by Adolis Garcia and Nathaniel Lowe, otherwise, he was efficient in dispatching Texas.
The Rangers saw eight pitches in the 1st, 9 after Garcia’s 2nd inning homer, and eight in the 3rd. Generally, that’s not going to be a great recipe for success and the result ended with Texas plating a meager two runs total over the series’ first two games.
Redemption for all
Wednesday afternoon’s finale saw Texas make adjustments and find some redeeming performances. Starter deGrom, making his second start for the Rangers, more than atoned for his poor showing on Opening Day, pitching perfect for four innings before giving up two runs (one earned) in the 5th.
Besides those few blemishes, deGrom worked six total innings and surrendered two hits, the two runs and two walks – but he also struck out eleven. He looked much more like the ace that Texas acquired in the offseason.
The offense also perked up a bit during deGrom’s start. All but two hitters in the lineup got at least one hit, with the middle of the lineup – Garcia, Lowe, and Jung – driving in all of the runs for Texas.
The Rangers, on top of manufacturing a couple of runs early in the game, used the home run ball with Jung’s second dinger of the year breaking a 2-2 tie in the 6th to help deGrom earn his first win as a Ranger.
The bullpen is mighty
It is impossible to talk about significant takeaways from the Rangers’ first six games without talking about the relievers. Over the course of the entire Baltimore series, the bullpen didn’t give up a single run. Perhaps more astonishingly, they only gave up one hit in the 12 ⅓ innings of relief.
Dane Dunning again came to the rescue as the longman as he was pressed into duty to follow Heaney’s dud. Dunning did exactly what he had been placed on the roster to do – eat innings and stop the bleeding. The bespectacled hurler gave up the one hit by the bullpen in the series, but otherwise went four solid innings and prevented manager Bruce Bochy from having to touch his “winning pieces.” When Dunning finished his stretch, Taylor Hearn gamely filled out the rest of the box score, going 2 ⅓ innings of three strikeout, shutout ball.
It would also appear that Bochy’s plan is to use a tandem of Jose Leclerc and Will Smith at closer. Whereas Smith got the save in Sunday’s finale against Philadelphia, the lefty was called upon for a hold in the finale against the Orioles that lasted 1 ⅓ innings following deGrom.
Smith was spotless with two strikeouts in his 16 pitches before turning it over to the fireballer Jonathan Hernandez, who allowed one walk, and struck out one to finish out Smith’s inning. That left Leclerc to come and get the save, which he did with a strikeout while needing just 12 pitches.
It is, of course, unrealistic to expect the bullpen to continue to run this hot, but given the way Bochy is managing it, it’s not impossible to see this relief corps being a massive strength for the 2023 Rangers.
Do you think the Rangers are on the right track after their first homestand? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
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