ARLINGTON, Texas — It’s not entirely accurate to say that facing the Chicago White Sox could be considered a “break” for the Texas Rangers, but it at least should give them their best shot at breaking their second half string of road series losses.
The Rangers, currently just as much out of the playoff picture as the White Sox, have had a rough time this entire season, regardless of the opponent. Truthfully, there hasn’t been a single stretch of baseball that Texas has looked like defending champions or even in control.
The Rangers have had just two winning streaks of five games and those have been the longest streaks of the season. Both of those streaks happened in July, which was statistically their best month. The second five-game winning streak included a four-game sweep of these White Sox, which ultimately made their July surge appear as more smoke and mirrors than a real rise.
The White Sox, meanwhile, are in a far worse spot, an amazing 69 games under .500 – the difference? Everyone knew the White Sox were going to be terrible. The expectations for the reigning World Series champs were considerably higher.
Texas Rangers (60-71, 3rd Place AL West, 10.5 GB) @ Chicago White Sox (31-100, 5th Place AL Central, 44.5 GB)
Chicago down the stretch
As with most teams completely out of contention at the deadline, Chicago’s July was focused on divesting themselves of notable name talent and bringing in future hopeful contributors. All told, the White Sox sent off lefty reliever Tanner Banks, righty reliever Michael Kopech, shortstop Paul DeJong, outfielders Eloy Jimenez and Tommy Pham, and righty starter Erick Fedde to various corners of the big leagues. More notably, though, was that the White Sox kept two stars – starter Garrett Crochet and outfielder Luis Robert, Jr.
Crochet, who made his White Sox debut in the COVID-shortened season of 2020, is the current American League leader in strikeouts with 160 across just under 120 innings. That gives him a sterling K/9 rate of 12.6.
With two years of arbitration control remaining, Crochet was among the top prizes at the deadline. The White Sox, however, had an equally high asking price, which wasn’t met. Also potentially hurting Crochet’s tradability was the insistence of his agents on an extension being signed by any team that traded for him.
Whatever the case surrounding that situation, Crochet was not traded at the deadline, and while the White Sox are expected to explore extension possibilities with the lefty in the off-season, how he performs down the stretch for a completely out of it team might determine his trade value in the winter.
Robert, Jr. is another player with a little bit of control, with another season on his remaining contract and two club options right after that. Robert, Jr. was an All-Star last year and winner of one of the outfielder Silver Slugger awards. He earned a Gold Glove in his rookie year and is considered a solid defender.
Despite a down year this season, marred by a late start with a right flexor strain in the spring, demand for the flashy center fielder, with a career .270/.319/.487 slash, was present. However, with the 27-year-old struggling to get going, Chicago determined that holding onto him was better than selling low.
The matchups
- Game 132, 7:10 PM CT - LHP Andrew Heaney (4-13, 4.04 ERA) vs. LHP Garrett Crochet (6-9, 3.64 ERA)
- Game 133, 7:10 PM CT - TBD vs. RHP Chris Flexen (2-12, 5.34 ERA)
- Game 134, 1:10 PM CT - RHP Nathan Eovaldi (9-7, 3.79 ERA) vs. LHP Ky Bush (0-3, 5.60 ERA)
Chicago did not have the luxury of an off-day on Monday like the Rangers’ did. They finished up a series with the Detroit Tigers in town. What that does, though, is align things for Texas to get a look at Crochet in the series opener.
Crochet took the loss the last time Texas faced Chicago back in Arlington, going four innings and allowing two runs in a planned shortened start. With the intent of not overloading his arm, Chicago has kept Crochet on strict innings limits since the end of June, with the starter not having gone more than four innings since June 30th.
Chicago will follow up with righty Chris Flexen on Wednesday. The veteran had a great outing previously, but has been riding a rough stretch for the most part since the All-Star Break. Flexen gave up just two runs in six innings against the Tigers over the weekend; against Texas in July, he took a loss, giving up three runs in just 4 ⅔ innings of work.
Closing the series out will be rookie lefty Ky Bush, called up in August. He was roughed up by Detroit most recently, allowing five runs in just three innings of work.
The Rangers will lead the series with Andrew Heaney, who pitched brilliantly against the Pittsburgh Pirates last time out. Even though he got zero run support while he was in the game, the Rangers would go on to win 1-0 on a walk-off hit by Wyatt Langford. Heaney hasn’t had a lot of run support this season at all, pitching better than his record would indicate; with Texas going against the White Sox’ ace, he might not get a lot of support this time either.
The series will conclude with Nathan Eovaldi on the hill for Texas. Eovaldi gritted through six innings against a stubborn Guardians team, surrendering three runs, but keeping the offense in the game long enough to secure the only win of the most recent series. Wednesday’s game could see Tyler Mahle make a return to the hill, as that would be the first day that he would be eligible to return from the injured list after resting a stiff throwing shoulder.
Texas swept the White Sox last time that they faced them, a common occurrence for teams against Chicago for an historically bad Southside club this year. Therefore, it’s not an inconceivable thought to believe that they could do the same this week, but it’s also not inconceivable to see them bring their bad brand of road baseball to their best shot at winning away from Arlington.
Do you think the Rangers will finally win a series on the road in Chicago? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
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