In previous lives, I fancied myself a writer (he writes…). But I kind of buckled when I realized that I didn’t really write stories, I just wrote moments that didn’t really have any kind of flow to them.
One moment I always wanted to write was two friends, realizing that they were at the end of their roads, and one say to the other ‘If all good things have to end, and this is ending, well, it must have been a good thing, right?’
So, ending a ten game streak - that streak had to be good, right? (Yes. It was. Maybe let’s do it again a time or two this year.)
Gonna lose your streak in Detroit
I’ll be completely honest with you; I missed Friday’s game. Well, I saw Friday’s game, but it was the Frisco Roughriders playing, rather than Texas, and I’m going to give you a treat and tell you about the pitcher I saw, Connor Sadzeck, because he’s big and he’s mean and he’ll hit 99 MPH in the eighth inning on you.
See, the thing about Sadzeck is that he’s just about certain to pitch in the majors, probably for a while. And for all the world, he looks like he’s going to be comfortable and look real natural pitching high leverage late innings - what with the aforementioned 99 and functional benders - he’s imposing, and he pitches like he hates you. In fact, it’s kind of odd he isn’t in the majors already.
And the reason he isn’t is he took an assignment as a starter in AA last year, and, to the surprise of some, he kind of took to it. He’s stayed with it, through this year. And, look, Sam Dyson is what Sadzeck could probably be right now, but if Sam Dyson could be A.J. Griffin, he’d probably take that (and the team almost certainly would).
So, you let him exhaust the possibility that he can cut it as a big, mean starter. A season and a half later, that possibility ain’t exhausted, but the Texas League is gettin’ mighty tired of him.
Anyway, Sadzeck went eight innings, allowed one run (a Jon Singleton solo shot) and turned the intensity up in the eighth, striking out his last batter at 99 MPH. His approach with two strikes was fun to watch - he attacked.
He pitched backwards like a starter can by opening a lot of hitters off with offspeed pitches, then wiped them out with heat. He did this with a wind blowing out to center that was lifting blankets off the grass on the berm.
It was real dang fun. If you have a chance to see him in Frisco in the next month, take it, because otherwise you might have to drive to Round Rock.
Or Arlington, maybe in September.
Oh, the Rangers? Nick Martinez went five innings and allowed a run, Mike Napoli and Joey Gallo hit homers, and the Rangers won 5-3 despite some drama in the ninth with hard-driven Matt Bush striking out the tying run on an absolutely furious 92 MPH slider.
Ok, so, we’re going to breeze past Saturday’s game, too, because A.J. Griffin (I know I used him as kind of a good example earlier, but…) gave up four homers and the Rangers lost 9-3. A.J started this streak, and as any father will remind you: if he brought you into the world, he can take you out of it.
Let’s focus instead on the bullpen-saving efforts of Austin Bibens-Dirkx, who pitched 4 2/3 shutout innings. It’s a low key note, but in the early season struggles, it seems that having a dependable long man was missing (ok, for quite a while, a long man was patently missing, but that’s another conversation).
If ABD could be that, it would be quite a boon to Texas (and baseball in general, because baseball can use as many Austin Bibens-Dirkx’s as it can get).
Finally, on Sunday, Yu Darvish started, and started rough. That happens, even to aces. But your average ace figures it out, duct tapes together enough, and gives you a functional, if not beautiful, game.
This was a little of both; he ended the game with just five innings pitched (likely would have seen action in the sixth had some Rangers offense in the top frame and a pitching change not lead to an extended sit with a warmed up Alex Claudio waiting), and allowed five hits, four walks, two runs in, a single one in each of the two first innings, while striking out seven Tigers.
He was supported by a varied offense; they gave him a lead in the first (Jonathan Lucroy RBI single) (he lost it), the second (Robinson Chirinos RBI single following a Nomar Mazara triple) (he lost it), and again in the fifth (Mike Napoli 446 foot homer to center) (he didn’t lose it).
Pete Kozma followed the 2017 Rangers tradition of third base producing (Joey Gallo had a planned day off, so don’t worry, except his back was stiff, so worry a little) with a homer in the sixth to set the score at 4-2.
In came Claudio, who got four outs with minimal drama. Sam Dyson took over in the seventh with Miguel Cabrera at the plate. Dyson gave a hard hit double to Cabrera, but then struck out the next two batters (his first since April 11th. His first strikeout - not the first time he K’d two back to back). He struck out a third in the eighth, and fed Kozma two other easy grounders.
Is Sam Dyson back? Or did our universes cross over and we got the evil Sam Dyson (he has traded the beard for a goatee….)?
Lucroy doubled home Odor for an insurance run in the ninth, and Keone Kela pitched a clean ninth (with Jeffress and Alvarez warming in the pen just in case) and a 5-2 win started what will hopefully be a new streak.
Meanwhile Houston was getting swept by Cleveland, and their lead dropped to 5.5 games, the closest Texas has been since, like, Week Two (I am not fact checking this and I will welcome you calling me fake news if you so desire).
Sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name
Following Monday’s travel day (well appreciated following a Sunday night game) the Rangers will meet the Red Sox in Boston for a three game set. Boston is 22-21, with a run differential of -1 that says they’ve landed just a teeny bit on the lucky side to get there.
In Tuesday’s opener, Andrew Cashner will oppose Rick Porcello. Porcello is 2-5 with a 4.23 ERA although FIP/xFIP say, at 3.95/3.71 respectively, he’s likely to see that drop a bit. He’s been a bit more homer-prone this year (1.63/9, compared to 1.0 for his career) and he’s either been hittable or unlucky (BABiP of .341). Also noteworthy, Cashner's once and future rotation mate Tyson Ross will throw a pitch in anger for the first time this season in Round Rock.
On Wednesday Martin Perez will throw opposite Chris Sale. Chris Sale is a cyborg from the future programmed to embarrass 2017 batters. The Rangers don’t hit human lefties well, let alone avenging spirits of honest rum traders from the 1700s that were beset by pirates and died at sea, screaming the names of the sailors they would come to haunt. Chris Sale is really good, and likely has coconut crab genetic material in his arm.
Sale most recently tied a big league record by striking out ten or more batters in eight consecutive starts. Perez most recently set his career high in strikeouts with eight.
In Thursday’s finale, you’ll see Nick Martinez pitch for Texas opposite former perennial Texas trade target Drew Pomeranz. Pomeranz has pitched well for Boston (10.33 K/9) but he’s rang up pitch counts and failed to go deep in games (38 innings pitched in eight starts). He’s kind of what some of the local sports talkers pretend Yu Darvish is.
For a final bit of intrigue, can we ponder for a moment whether Texas will bring Adrian Beltre back to the fold in the town he played in before joining Texas? The Hall of Famer has been running in cleats, which was one of the final hurdles before playing, so we’ll say it would be a surprise, but a fun one.
In a second final note, the team goes to Toronto after this series. That might be lit, which is what the kids say and they don’t mean literature.
Do you think Connor Sadzeck will stick as a starting pitcher? Give Joe your juicest Sadz takez on Twitter @thejoeursery.
