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Texas Rangers need A.J. Griffin to pick up where he left off

By Stephen Francis

Aug 20, 2016; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher A.J. Griffin (64) walks back to the dugout after the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Aug 20, 2016; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Texas Rangers starting pitcher A.J. Griffin (64) walks back to the dugout after the first inning against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /
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Texas Rangers RHP A.J. Griffin
The Texas Rangers will once again call on RHP A.J. Griffin against the Oakland A’s. Hopefully, this time will be better than the last. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

After a sweep at the hands of the Mariners, the Texas Rangers are looking to get back on the right track with Griffin squaring off against his former team.

Entering the weekend, the Texas Rangers looked like they had things moving in the right direction. They’d taken two of three from the Angels and had won their second straight series. But then they entered the ballpark where Rangers’ dreams go to die at Safeco Field. Three games and three losses later, they are reeling once again. Just like their last sweep though, they face the Oakland Athletics Monday night with the hope of righting the ship again as A.J. Griffin faces A’s pitcher Jharel Cotton.

Oakland Starter Jharel Cotton

Cotton, still classified as a rookie, enters Monday night’s game with 1-1 record and a 3.97 earned run average. This will mark just his second game pitched against Texas, but he set the bar so high in his first game that he’ll have a hard time topping it.

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Cotton faced the Rangers on September 25 of 2016 at Oakland Alameda County Coliseum. As a September call-up, he made just his fifth career start but pitched like a veteran. Of course, he was helped immensely by a seven run burst from the A’s offense in the second inning. He never looked back from there, going seven strong and allowing just three hits. While all three hits went for extra bases, a solo home run from Adrian Beltre was the only one to do any damage.

He averaged just 10 pitches per inning with five strikeouts on the afternoon. Based on the popular Bill James scoring system, he finished with a score of 72 for the start.

While that doesn’t come close to any of MLB’s all-time highs, it’s a great score for a rookie. In theory, the “game score” means he left the ballgame with a 72% chance Oakland would win.

Cotton’s last outing this season looked a lot like his performance against Texas. He threw 98 pitches in seven shutout innings against the Kansas City Royals last Monday. Kansas City touched him for just two hits and three walks with six strikeouts. He ended that one with a game score of 76. The Angels roughed him up pretty well in his first start of the season, but despite that he still hasn’t allowed a home run ball.

Among current active Rangers players, catcher Jonathan Lucroy is the only one with a hit off of him. That’s not much of a barometer though, because the active Texas roster only has eight plate appearances against him, combined.

Texas starter A.J. Griffin

Griffin enters Monday evening’s matchup 1-0 with a 6.75 ERA. Like Cotton, he has just two starts so far this season and is also coming off the better of his two starts. He faced Oakland in his season opener, but it was not a great appearance.

The Texas offense gave Griffin plenty of run support, posting eight runs in the first two innings. But the A’s dinged him for three in the third and another in the fourth, leading to his early exit after just 3 1/3 innings. Matthew Joyce and Khris Davis each knocked him for home runs and cut an 8-0 Rangers lead in half to 8-4. After seeing Griffin throw 75 pitches to 17 hitters in 3 1/3 innings, manager Jeff Banister used abrasions on Griffin’s palms and knees as an excuse to bring him out early. Reliever Alex Claudio came in though and pitched brilliantly to salvage the win for Texas.

Following that game, Matthew Joyce now has two home runs off Griffin in eight career plate appearances against him. He’ll be the guy to keep an eye on in this one.

Next: Something is seriously wrong with Sam Dyson

In their last game, Oakland lost to Houston 10-6 on Saturday. Sunday’s game was postponed due to rain. With a 5-7 record, they’d love nothing more than to sweep the Rangers and get above .500 for the first time since winning on Opening Day against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Monday’s game opens a three game set between Oakland and Texas with a first pitch of 9:05 PM CDT.

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