ARLINGTON, Texas — When you consider that any of the teams in the American League East – from the Tampa Bay Rays down to the New York Yankees – would be in first place in the American League Central, sweeping the then first place Cleveland Guardians can potentially seem unimpressive.
However, when the first place Rays, who have led the American League from the jump, come to town and they get swept away as well? That lends itself to a little more legitimacy. The Texas Rangers accomplished both and earned back-to-back series sweeps and their first six-game winning streak of the season.
- Game 95: Tampa Bay 2, Texas 3 (W: Chapman, 5-2, L: Fairbanks, 0-3)
- Game 96: Tampa Bay 3, Texas 5 (W: Eovaldi, 11-3, L: Bradley, 5-6, Sv: Smith, 17)
- Game 97: Tampa Bay 1, Texas 5 (W: Burke, 4-2, L: Littell, 0-2)
Three Up
Nice and Speasy – They won’t all be like this for Alex Speas, just like they haven’t all been as easy for Grant Anderson since his historic debut. But for one glorious day, the 25-year old once-retired, once-Little League coach, was as dominant a reliever as any in the big leagues.
On a day that the Rangers’ bullpen needed to provide a little unexpected length, Speas, who was called up earlier in the day, was given no small task – protect a 1-0 lead against the AL’s frontrunners. On top of that, his first batter was the Rays’ All-Star shortstop Wander Franco.
There was a runner on first and only one out. It was a chance to sink or swim in his MLB debut. Speas threw five pitches to Franco – four cutters and a 99.8 MPH fastball which led to a 3-2 count. The former second-round draft pick then threw a low 92.1 MPH cutter that Franco swung and missed on, giving Speas his first strikeout, and catcher Jonah Heim threw out would-be base-stealer Manuel Margot to end the inning with Texas still on top.
That’s a good start. Speas was then given all the comfort of a 2-0 lead as he entered the top of the 8th inning and proceeded to record two more strikeouts against two more AL All-Stars – Yandy Díaz and Randy Arozarena – and then retire Issac Paredes on a pop out. He might not have recorded the win, but Speas certainly looked and felt like a winner as the Rangers went on to finish the sweep 5-2.
Wild walk-off wizardry – The Rangers have so frequently won by blowout (by a margin of five or more runs) that a victory via a walk-off has become a pretty rare occurrence. Never mind that until Sunday, the Rangers were 0-27 when trailing after seven innings and just 5-11 when tied after seven.
Texas added to their two walk-off wins total with an odd one on Monday. After tying it up in the 6th, Rookie of the Year candidate Josh Jung doubled to lead off the 9th and was replaced by Josh H. Smith on the basepaths. A strikeout and a ground out moved Smith over to third and then former Ranger Pete Fairbanks gripped a fastball a little too tightly and fired it past the catcher to the backstop, allowing Smith to score the winner on a wild pitch.
In a game started by Tampa Bay ace Shane McClanahan, who was pitching after returning from the IL like he never left, you take those kinds of wins and don’t look back.
Semien stars – After a very pronounced slump leading into the All-Star Break, Marcus Semien, who was slashing .209/.272/.313 since his 25-game hitting streak was snapped back on June 7, seems to be coming around again.
Since coming out of the break, Semien has hit .350, including going 4-for-11 in the Tampa Bay series. Despite going hitless in the finale, the Rangers’ offense has perked up quite a bit since the break; it’s not really a coincidence that it comes along with Semien’s return to form.
Rangers manager Bruce Bochy and teammate Corey Seager have said it multiple times – when Marcus Semien goes, the Rangers’ offense goes.
Three Down
Knocked around – Jon Gray might be one of the luckiest or unluckiest pitchers in the majors this season, depending on your perspective. In his third start of the year back in April, the Rangers righty was drilled directly on the forearm with a 109.3 comebacker off the bat of the Houston Astros catcher Yanier Diaz.
With Gray’s injury history and bad luck, it seemed fairly certain at the moment that Gray probably had a broken arm. But it ended up just a shortened outing and a nasty bruise. That was one bullet dodged.
Bullet two came when Gray got hit by a comebacker in his start in the finale against the Rays. This one was off of the bat of Rays first baseman Yandy Diaz and this one got Gray flush on the shin.
After a few warm-up pitches, Gray would come out of the game and the Texas bullpen would take over. At that point, Gray had thrown 4 ⅓ innings and scattered eight hits without allowing a run. X-Rays were negative for Gray again and he announced that he expects to make his next start which could come against the Astros again.
Later in the game, Adolis Garcia was drilled with a cut fastball to the elbow. X-Rays would also come back negative on Garcia’s arm; with the off-day tomorrow, he’ll probably be back for the Dodgers’ series over the weekend.
Unfortunate Casualty – In order to make room for the electric arm of Alex Speas, Texas had to designate a hometown kid for assignment. Taylor Hearn, from Royse City, had to be booted off the 40-man roster to make room for Speas.
Hearn, who started off this season in the bullpen as a long reliever, only got to pitch in four games with the big league club this year. In those four games, he gave up eight earned runs in just seven innings pitched which earned him a demotion.
At Triple-A Round Rock, Hearn was much better, putting up a 3.66 ERA in 24 games, including two starts. Hearn was traded to the Rangers in 2019 for reliever Keone Kela, profiling as a back of the rotation pitcher as his upside. He never really got the chance to be a regular starter for Texas, moving back and forth from the rotation to the pen, up and down from the majors to the minor leagues, starting 13 games maximum in 2022 for the club.
Middle relief miscues – As proof that they’re not all as good as the debut, Grant Anderson stumbled a bit in the middle game of the series. Jose Leclerc, who had been outstanding in his last eight outings, got one out in the 7th on Tuesday, but otherwise battled control issues, resulting in Tampa Bay turning a 2-0 Texas lead into a 2-1 game.
Anderson came on to put out the fire and did so with a double play. In the top of the 8th, however, after a Corey Seager three-run blast had given the Rangers a comfortable 5-1 lead, Anderson gave up two homers to Randy Arozarena and Brandon Lowe.
While he was able to escape that inning without further damage, perhaps Will Smith doesn’t come on to close a 5-1 game that had become a save situation at 5-3. The funky righty has now given up six runs in six July appearances. All that to say, Anderson and Leclerc have been winning pieces of late, but you never know what you might get with middle relief.
As it did for Tampa Bay and as it did for Texas previously, all good things will eventually have to come to an end. This six-game winning streak has been fun, but there’s every chance it ends this weekend with the Los Angeles Dodgers coming to town. Or, who knows, maybe the Rangers will keep running the table against first place teams.
For now, however, Texas enjoyed sweeps of division leaders, while the Houston Astros have run into some trouble, which has allowed the Rangers to build up their lead in the American League West to 4 ½ games.
Do you think the Rangers have discovered another late-innings arm in Alex Speas? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.