ARLINGTON, Texas — After faltering ungracefully in Cincinnati last week, sometimes a little home cooking is all you need to right the ship again. That’s how things played out for the Texas Rangers as they returned to Arlington and closed out the month of April by taking three of four from the New York Yankees.
Through the season’s first month, the Rangers sit at 17-11 which places them two games above the Houston Astros in first place in the American League West. Here’s a look back at what transpired in April’s final series:
An early hole thanks to Gerrit Cole
Yes, the Rangers hit a season-long four-game losing streak after dropping the opener to New York on Thursday. This came after they had suffered their first series sweep in Cincinnati to a pretty bad Reds team. It felt like Texas was spiraling out of control with a weekend date against old playoff rival New York ahead of them and the loss in the first game seemed to seal their fate.
As it turns out, the problem in the opener was mostly that the Rangers were tasked with facing Gerrit Cole. Cole, the Yankees’ ace, who, before Thursday, had only given up three runs all season in five starts, giving him a 0.79 ERA. Texas, for their part, did alright against the righty, comparatively.
The former Astros hurler held Texas quiet for 5 innings, but the Rangers were able to get two off him in the 6th to make the game close in what ended up being a 4-2 loss. That might not seem like much, but it was enough of a spark to show that the team had some life.
Sometimes you face a really good pitcher and get beat. Andrew Heaney, meanwhile, did just fine in taking the loss. The lefty went six innings and allowed back-to-back solo home runs and a run-scoring hit for a total of three runs allowed for a quality start. Texas would go on to lose the game, but it wasn’t from the lack of execution, poor pitching or misplayed balls that plagued them in Cincy.
The bullpen bounces back
Coming home might have been the best medicine for the bullpen especially. After surrendering 11 runs in the series against the Reds, the bullpen surrendered just three runs over the course of the four game series against the Yankees. Two of those runs came after Dane Dunning was pressed into emergency service on Friday night – they would be the only two runs that the Yankees would score in a game that was off to a masterful Jacob deGrom (more on him later) start.
Nathan Eovaldi rendered the bullpen unnecessary by pitching a the first nine-inning complete game shutout of his career on Saturday, and the one run surrendered by the bullpen in the finale came in what was essentially “garbage time,” as Texas was already up 15-1 going into the ninth.
You can say all you want about the Yankees already being in an inescapable hole on Sunday when the bullpen got in, but it is still a Yankees lineup designed to score runs. It was extremely important, then, for pitchers like Ian Kennedy and Cole Ragans to get a couple of scoreless frames under their belt.
You could say it was equally, if not more important, for Jonathan Hernandez and Will Smith to get through some good, scoreless innings in higher leverage situations like Friday night.
Thanks to Eovaldi’s gem on Saturday and the two off days coming up this week, the bullpen will be in good shape to begin May with the National League West leading Arizona Diamondbacks coming to town for a two-game set before three consecutive series on the road on the West Coast against division rivals.
deFlating news and new challenges
On Friday night, Rangers ace deGrom threw an 89-MPH slider that was supposed to cut back and ended off target. It was the bottom of the fourth and Willie Calhoun went with the pitch and poked it to left field. It was deGrom’s 50th pitch of the evening and the Yankees’ first hit of the night.
Then deGrom would put his right hand on his hip, his mouth to his glove, and just stared at the pitching mound. For the second time in three starts, deGrom was leaving a dominant start earlier than anticipated with an injury. First, it was wrist soreness against Kansas City that caused his early exit after four no-hit innings. This time, the announcement was forearm tightness that became a diagnosis of elbow inflammation. Though he escaped the injury list last time, this one landed deGrom on the 15-day IL.
In front of the media on Sunday, deGrom downplayed the injury and said it was likely just some swelling that would need to go down with the hopes that he wouldn’t miss more than the 15 days required on the shelf.
With the two off days this week, the next time deGrom’s spot could come up would be May 9 in Seattle. Dunning appears poised to step in and make that start, given his stellar performance thus far in long relief, and the rest of the rotation has been holding up their end of the bargain.
If the Rangers only end up missing one or two starts from deGrom in a stretch against their division rivals, that would be the best case scenario. Heaney, Eovaldi and Martin Perez all had quality starts against the Yankees, and after the rotation’s first trip through, they’ve had the best ERA in the majors.
With deGrom in Texas on a 5-year contract, with the injury problems that he’s had in the recent past combined with the abundance of caution that the Rangers are opting for with their mercurial top starter, situations such as these likely will come frequently.
Texas being in first place and about to embark on the first trip to take on their division mates makes for a pretty good litmus test for how the team will handle and address this exact issue when it presents itself in the future.
The bats keep on trucking
The one thing that didn’t go south during the Cincinnati sweep and kept on rolling during the Yankees series was the offense. Yes, they only scored two runs off of both Cole and Saturday’s starter Jhony Brito, but it wasn’t due to a poor approach at the plate.
In the finale on Sunday, the approach paid off as we got to watch the incredible top-to-bottom offense in its entirety. Josh Jung cranked a first inning grand slam, Adolis Garcia, Nathaniel Lowe, and Jonah Heim all went deep, Robbie Grossman extended his hitting streak to 11 games, and Ezequiel Duran continued his emergence with a double and two RBIs.
So far in 2023, the Rangers have outscored their opponents 178-106, which is a +72 run differential, the best in franchise history through the season’s first month. That mark is also second best in baseball behind the red hot Tampa Bay Rays.
Jung is making an early case for Rookie of the Year with a .270/.324/.500 slash through his first 26 games while leading AL rookies in hits, doubles, and RBIs while second only to Tampa Bay’s Luke Raley in HRs (7 to 6).
If catcher Jonah Heim can keep up the pace, he might be a dark horse for a few MVP votes, as he’s registered 12 extra base hits – the most among American League catchers – while slashing .303/.386/.592 through the season’s first month.
Nathaniel Lowe, meanwhile, might have another Silver Slugger in him, as he’s slashing .257/.339/.459 so far while being a reliable fixture in the lineup. And for all of Robbie Grossman’s defensive issues, he’s still been a solid tablesetter with a .253/.333/.413 line.
Ron Washington used to say that after the first 100 at-bats, you can start to figure out how someone’s performing and how they’re trending. Most of the Rangers are right around that mark now, and if that’s any indication, it might be a fun summer to watch Texas at the plate.
Do you think the Rangers will still be in first place at the end of May? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
