Rangers One Hit Away From 0-4 Record This Season
The Texas Rangers were expected to be a bit mysterious following an AL West division title last season, but after four games this team is closer to 0-4 than 4-0.
It’s still early for the Texas Rangers. With 158 games still left to play, it’s a safe bet that this team’s identity is yet to be established. After all, Yu Darvish has yet to the throw a pitch, Josh Hamilton has yet to swing the bat, and what about youngsters like Jurickson Profar and Joey Gallo?
All good questions with no certain answers just yet.
What is clear is that the Rangers, for better or worse, actually look something closer to ‘worse’ than they do ‘better.’
The reality is that the Rangers are one Prince Fielder bloop single away from likely being 0-4, that lone base hit coming during an impressive, if not tense, opening day win at Globe Life Park in Arlington on Monday.
And it’s been all downhill from there, at least in the win column.
Pitching would be among the biggest concerns, especially following Thursday night’s stunning walk-off loss to the Los Angeles Angels. This particular event wasn’t exactly an isolated occurrence, but rather a growing problem early this season.
Evan Grant of Dallas Morning News points out the significance of the number ‘5,’ with respect to the Rangers young season and Jeff Banister elaborates:
"It’s not where we want to be. There are ‘good’ walks when you don’t want to face a certain guy in a certain situation, but you still have to cover the walks. … If we’re able to get through that inning, we’re still decent shape."
Except the Rangers haven’t made it out of innings quite like they expect to – certainly not the way they did down the stretch last season.
Pitching problems, as a whole, haven’t just been limited to the bullpen, either. Grant also discusses how home runs given up are at a disturbing pace.
"The walk total and the number of runs scored off those walks is hardly the only disturbing set of stats in the first four games. Escobar’s third-inning homer Friday was the 10th allowed by the Rangers this season. It is second-highest total in the majors behind Arizona."
Indeed, things need to change in a hurry.
The Rangers were written off last season following a horrible start under first-year manager Jeff Banister. It really wasn’t until this team had that bases-clearing shouting match against the Houston Astros last summer that the Rangers really turned things around around.
Still, duplicating last season’s stumbling out of the gate isn’t advisable. It can’t be assumed that the Astros, for example, are going to fade down the stretch. So far, we already know that the Seattle Mariners can hurt the Rangers bullpen following a 2-1 series victory to open the season. The Angels are already 1-0 against Texas, and this is a team that’s also built to contend in the AL West. We’ll find out about the Astros and the Oakland Athletics in the near future
The good news is that Texas is merely 1.5 games out of first place in the West, with only Seattle actually above .500 by a single game – so maybe the AL West isn’t that good.
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Regardless, the Rangers would be advised to go ahead and start winning a few games in order to keep from sinking too far down the standings. This team may have turned last season into a fun ride, despite several key injuries that the club is still trying to recover from, but other things tend to happen each and every season. Texas needs to stay afloat until this team reaches full strength in the coming weeks.