Amidst another pitching injury concern, the Texas Rangers trudged on in a series against the Pittsburgh Pirates looking to find the footing that has eluded them for nearly five months.
Pitching help appears to be just around the corner however, as it was announced that Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer would both pitch for Double-A Frisco this weekend on rehab assignments.
The former Cy Young cavalry might be two weeks away, but in order to get through the last month of the season, Texas will take what they can get. In the meantime, the Pirates, fighting for a Wild Card spot, were also trying to right the ship in Arlington.
Game 126: Pittsburgh 3, Texas 4 (W: Urena, 4-8, L: Ortiz, 5-4, Sv: Yates, 22)
Game 127: Pittsburgh 4, Texas 0 (W: Keller, 11-7, L: Bradford, 4-1)
Game 128: Pittsburgh 0, Texas 1 (W: Yates, 5-2, L: Bednar, 3-6)
Seager slugs again
Last year, the Rangers went to the World Series despite Corey Seager having three different stints on the injured list. This season, Seager has mostly managed to avoid lengthy injury stints, but Texas finds itself fighting to stay relevant amidst the American League’s least competitive division.
The season has hardly been befitting of a defending World Series Championship team. As such, it’s been a difficult year for the $325 million shortstop, but he’s also still the best player on the field most nights.
In the series opener, Seager launched an absolute rocket of a homer in the first inning and had an encore in the third inning with a 3-run shot that made the difference as the four runs Seager contributed via the long ball was the entirety of Texas’ offensive output on the night.
With spot starter Dane Dunning giving up a three-run homer of his own, Seager single-handedly carried the Rangers to a victory that gave them their first winning streak since sweeping Chicago back in late July.
Battlin’ Bradford
Bad Cody Bradford starts have been a rarity this season when Bradford has been healthy enough to take the mound. After returning to the roster just before the end of July, Bradford has put together a string of solid starts despite having to ramp up to a starter’s workload on the fly after missing most of the season.
In his start on Tuesday, Bradford again gave Texas a chance with a solid outing. Even though he had one rough inning where a string of two-out hits led to three Pirates runs, Bradford still managed to give the Rangers seven strong innings of work. Bradford only allowed five hits through those seven innings and struck out eight Pirates.
On most days in a normal season, the quality start probably would have been good enough to get a win, but the Rangers could only muster three hits against a Pittsburgh trio of Mitch Keller, Aroldis Chapman, and David Bednar. None of those hits scored a run as no Texas runner even reached scoring position.
Exit Mahle, enter Gray
The Rangers’ top winter acquisition Tyler Mahle had just come back from the injured list after undergoing Tommy John surgery with the Minnesota Twins in May of last year. In his Texas debut, against the Astros, Mahle pitched about as well as could have been expected, as the righty threw five innings of one-run ball.
However, instead of building upon that debut, Mahle seemed to trend down with each outing. In his second start he went 4 ⅔ innings and he allowed two runs, but in his last start earlier in the homestand against the Twins, he made it just three innings with worrying lower velocity readings. Fearing a fresh ailment, the Rangers opted to play it safe and placed the starter back on the IL.
As they did so, Texas was able to bring back Jon Gray. Gray went on the injured list just before his start in Toronto at the end of July with a groin strain. He returned in relief with an appearance against Pittsburgh on Tuesday. He took on the last two innings after starter Bradford, giving up a run in the top of the ninth.
Gray supplementing the bullpen is a good sign, but the Rangers currently need arms for the rotation. That said, it wouldn’t be the first time that Gray pulled a relief outing only to then return to the rotation.
Heart of Heaney
Andrew Heaney has the most losses of any pitcher in Major League Baseball. Yes, that could mean that he’s been a really terrible pitcher, but the actual truth is just the latest indictment on the Rangers’ offense.
Heaney’s outing against the Pirates is the fifth outing in a row that the Rangers have scored fewer than two runs of support for Heaney. Still, the lefty makes the most of his usually limited outings. In the series finale, the lefty tossed five strong innings, allowing just five hits and no runs while striking out eight. No, he didn’t take a loss, as the one run that Texas scored was enough to walk it off in the ninth; but Heaney didn’t get a win either.
Even with the Rangers taking the series from the Pirates, Texas managed just 14 hits across the three-game set, while scoring just five runs. Two Seager home runs contributed four of those runs and Texas went 22 innings between Seager’s last blast and Wyatt Langford’s walk-off single in the finale.
Still a series win is a series win and those have been hard to come back for the Rangers. With just over a month left in the season, Texas clings to the faintest of hope and next go from facing the NL Central’s last place team to taking on the AL Central leaders in Cleveland.
