ARLINGTON, Texas — The Lone Star Series returned and it appears that things are just as the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros left them. After years of being under Houston’s boot, the Rangers won October bragging rights in the first playoff series between the two AL West and Texas rivals but lest we forget, it was the Astros that claimed the division last year and won the season-series in 2023.
In their first series of 2024, the Rangers got the upperhand with two wins before Houston closed out the series with a couple of victories of their own to show that these teams are likely in for another back-and-forth year.
With nine games left to be played between these teams in the regular season, the next one to earn five wins will claim the Silver Boot.
Game 7: Astros 2, Rangers 10 (W: Bradford, 2-0, L: Brown, 0-1)
Game 8: Astros 2, Rangers 7 (W: Yates, 1-0, L: France, 0-1, Sv: Leclerc, 1)
Game 9: Astros 3, Rangers 1 (W: Blanco, 2-0, L: Dunning, 1-1, Sv: Hader, 1)
Game 10: Astros 10, Rangers 5 (W: Martinez, 1-0, L: Heaney, 0-2)
Cody begins the story
Entering the season, the Rangers had four rotation spots figured out, even with the absence of Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer and the newly signed Tyler Mahle. The fifth spot was completely up for grabs, even with the late spring signing of Michael Lorenzen. Lorenzen, now maybe a week and a half away from joining the Rangers rotation, might be replacing someone else besides Cody Bradford.
Bradford, who made his debut last June, figured to be in the long reliever spot in the bullpen for the majority of the year. He may yet assume that position, but on Friday night, opening against a still-dangerous Astros ball club, Bradford pitched like he was ready to stay in the rotation.
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Bradford’s night started and ended with base hits – the only two he would allow all night. It took the Aledo, TX native just 97 pitches to pitch into the 8th inning, holding Houston to just one run, which happened when Yerry Rodriguez gave up a two-run shot with Bradford’s property on base.
It’s early in the season, but a statement series like this one against Houston needed a strong start, and that’s what they got from Cody Bradford.
Team effort
When everyone in the starting lineup records a hit, chances are the ball game is going to end up favorably. That’s what happened with the Rangers in the first two games of this series. Texas spread the wealth of their 31 hits over the first two games among the lineup.
Marcus Semien, Adolis Garcia, Evan Carter, Jonah Heim, and Josh Smith each recorded two hits in the Friday opener, while Semien, Carter, Corey Seager, and Leody Taveras recorded two apiece on Saturday.
The Rangers offense really had not been held in check until Sunday night, when Ronel Blanco, fresh off throwing a no-hitter, came close to no-hitting Texas on Sunday Night Baseball. The offense, though, has been firing on all cylinders to start the season.
Next man down
As if the Rangers, specifically their pitching, could afford more injuries, Josh Sborz joined the injured list. Coming close to completing a clean 8th inning in Saturday’s win, Sborz came out of the game with two strikes on Jose Abreu. It was later revealed that Sborz had suffered a strained rotator cuff. Grant Anderson was recalled, someone who arguably could have or should have been on the Opening Day roster to begin with, but the story is that Sborz is another pitcher who will be out of action.
It wasn’t more than two days after the injury to Sborz that Texas saw another addition to the injury wire. Justin Foscue, who was recalled to replace Josh Jung, who himself went on the IL with a broken wrist, suffered an oblique injury after recording his first Major League hit and RBI on Sunday night.
In Foscue’s stead, Texas brought up Davis Wendzel, their supplemental first round pick from 2019. Wendzel has been playing quite well through nine games, slashing .314/.419/.657 after having something of an eye-opening time at spring training camp.
Same old problems
2024 would have been a great time for Andrew Heaney to renovate the image crafted for him after last year. In 2023, Heaney was relegated to bullpen duty late in the year after being deemed ineffective in starters around the 80-pitch mark. By sheer necessity, Heaney was reshuffled back into the rotation to start this season.
The prevailing thought is that young starter Bradford would head back to the bullpen as a long reliever once late-signee Lorenzen had finished ramping up in the minors, but Heaney appears to be having the same issues with efficiency that is leading to short outings which could ultimately cause a change of plans.
In the finale of this series, Heaney threw 84 pitches in just 3 ⅔ innings, allowing a total of six earned runs. That outing followed just 4 ⅔ innings in 90 pitches against Tampa Bay last week. Heaney was given a 5-2 lead after the first inning, an inning in which he had already given up two runs to put Texas in an early hole.
Also in the finale loss, the recently returning reliever Anderson suffered some of the same issues that plagued him in his stint in the big leagues last year. Anderson gave up a three-run homer to career .237 hitting backup catcher Victor Caratini to turn a 7-5 game into a 10-5 laugher, essentially putting the game out of reach.
The Rangers wouldn’t score again the rest of the game. It was an all too familiar sight for a club haunted by bullpen issues and that began with Heaney’s routine inability to bunch together quick outs.
Langford isn’t languishing
While expectations were high for Evan Carter, who is still in his rookie season despite making a huge impact for the team on their way to winning the World Series some five months ago, it is Wyatt Langford that continues to be the rookie on everyone’s lips.
Over the course of this series, Langford went 5-for-18 with three runs scored and three RBI. The 2023 first-round pick continues to show that he can handle the speed of the game at the Major League level just fine.
Texas had a rough couple of games in a row to close out the series. One was certainly part of a pitcher beating the best offense in baseball and the other was a tough night for the bullpen set up by an inefficient starter. Still, the Rangers walked away from the duel with Houston with a split over the four-game set and now look forward to welcoming the wayward Oakland Athletics to town.
Do you think the Rangers will end up on top of the Astros in the AL West this year? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
