ARLINGTON, Texas — After seeing the Minnesota Twins last weekend over four games, the Rangers now welcome the American League Central division leaders to Arlington in a very different position.
Going into the series in the Twin Cities, Texas was up by one game over both the Seattle Mariners and Houston Astros in the American League West. A week later, Texas finds themselves in third place behind both aforementioned teams, and desperately trying to make a push to regain a hold of first place in their division.
The Twins, meanwhile, have a firm grip on first place in the Central, despite some offensive and bullpen woes of their own, while their division rival Cleveland Guardians made waiver claims in hopes of making the division a race to the finish line.
Minnesota down the stretch
As we enter the final month of the season, teams that made moves during the off-season and at the trade deadline will be heavily scrutinized for their action or inaction. The Twins will be one of those teams.
General Manager Thad Levine, a former Rangers’ assistant GM, and President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey made plenty of moves before the 2023 season to augment and improve the Twins’ rotation, bullpen and offense but then didn’t do much at the trade deadline.
For starters, former Astros’ All-Star shortstop Carlos Correa joined the team on a six-year deal. The Twins also acquired outfielders Joey Gallo and Michael A. Taylor, infielder Kyle Farmer and catcher Christian Vasquez. They also landed starter Pablo Lopez from the Miami Marlins. While all of their acquisitions played well enough, in a division that wasn’t very good, “well enough” was certainly not perceived as going to be good enough to go deep into the postseason.
At the trade deadline, the prevailing thought was that Levine and Falvey were going to make some moves to enhance the bullpen, which was one of the best in baseball going into August. But the Twins stood pat and since then, the bullpen has dropped the ball in some big moments. Despite that, as they have been able to defeat their division opponents handily, the Twins have remained in first place and look like a good bet to stay on top.
At the waiver claim deadline, it was the Guardians who scooped up three pitchers – one starter and two relievers – that could have drastically improved Minnesota’s roster. But with Cleveland five games back of the division lead and 11.5 back of a Wild Card spot, the moves might have only marginally increased their chances at a playoff spot, but greatly hindered the Twins’ chances of improving their chances in the playoffs.
In short, the Guardians’ actions at the waiver claim deadline, coupled with Minnesota’s inaction at the trade deadline, just made things harder for the Twins if their goals are to have success in October.
The matchups
- Game 134: 7:05 PM CT - RHP Joe Ryan (9-8, 4.33 ERA) vs. RHP Max Scherzer (12-5, 3.71 ERA)
- Game 135: 6:15 PM CT - LHP Dallas Keuchel (1-1, 3.50 ERA) vs. LHP Jordan Montgomery (8-10, 3.19 ERA)
- Game 136: 1:35 PM CT - RHP Kenta Maeda (3-7, 4.69 ERA) vs. RHP Jon Gray (8-7, 3.79 ERA)
Joe Ryan will take the ball in the opener for the Twins, while Texas’ ace Max Scherzer will make the start in Arlington. It’s a rematch of the third game of last weekend’s series, the only one that the Rangers won in the four-game set.
In that game, Ryan pitched five innings of five-hit, one-run ball in his return from the injured list. He certainly showed no signs of the pitcher that had given up 31 runs in seven starts prior to landing on the IL. The Rangers broke through against the bullpen in the 9th to win that game after a very solid evening from Scherzer.
Scherzer struck out 10 over seven innings while allowing just two runs while taking the no decision. There may not be a losing streak to stop this time around, but Texas needs Scherzer to put up a similar performance against the Twins again as a tone setter.
Saturday’s second game will see Dallas Keuchel make a start for the Twins, facing off against Texas’ Jordan Montgomery. Keuchel, while he didn’t make a start against the Rangers in the last series, was a huge part in preventing the Rangers from winning the series finale. Keuchel held the Rangers scoreless for five innings, coming on in relief in the 5th and throwing through the 9th in the extra-innings loss for Texas.
With that performance, along with the seven innings of perfect baseball he threw in the start prior, have earned the former Cy Young winner a spot in the rotation down the stretch.
Montgomery, for his part, pitched better than his line would indicate, going 5 ⅓ innings, giving up just four hits and two walks. Manager Bruce Bochy pulled the lefty with the bases loaded in the 6th, and it was fellow trade acquisition Chris Stratton who then gave up a grand slam to draw Minnesota to within one run at the time in a game Texas would eventually lose despite a 5-0 lead.
The finale pits Minnesota’s Kenta Maeda against the Rangers’ Jon Gray. This will be the one matchup that didn’t happen in the last series in Minnesota. Gray would pitch the next night against the Mets where he enjoyed not the cleanest performance, but a winning effort nonetheless.
Gray tossed six innings of three-run ball and the Rangers were able to win the opener in New York by a score of 4-3 with their first 9th inning comeback of the season. Gray has made a habit of using his slider as an effective put-out pitch lately, and that will be key against a Twins team that leads the big league in strikeouts.
Maeda, who is slated to be a free agent after this season, has enjoyed a great second half of the season after returning from a triceps injury that put him on the injured list for the month of June. While he gave up six runs against Cleveland in his last start, before that he had pitched to a 3.14 ERA with 62 strikeouts over nine games while opponents hit just .206 against him.
The Mariners are about to take on the Mets after posting a month with the most wins in franchise history. The Astros are about to take on the free-falling New York Yankees. It’s the Rangers that will have the hardest series of the three this weekend, taking on a first-place team.
Nevertheless, perhaps returning home can reignite the team with a month left in the season, but Texas’s offense needs to step up first, because taking chances on the bullpen in close games has proven to be an ineffective strategy.
Do you think the Rangers will kick off September with a series win? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
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