Texas Rangers looking to turn a new page in May
The Texas Rangers started the 2017 regular season by stumbling out of the block. But things got a little better in the middle of the month and now a date with the Houston Astros could provide just what they need.
After one month, things could honestly be worse for the Texas Rangers. Sure, they sit at 11-14 and trail the Houston Astros by five games, but they made some great strides throughout the month to show some promise. And with another five months left on the schedule, there is still plenty to get excited about as the calendar rolls into May.
The rotation
The combination of Yu Darvish, Cole Hamels, Martin Perez, Andrew Cashner, Nick Martinez and A.J. Griffin combined to go 8-8 in their starts with nine no-decisions. According to Baseball Reference, only one of those wins came as “cheap wins,” and three of those losses came as “tough losses.” This means they could have easily combined to go 10-6 or better had they gotten better run support.
Those six also combined for an earned run average in April of just 3.37. You’d take that out of a starting rotation any time. In fact, Nick Martinez had the worst April ERA of the bunch at 4.26. Considering he was an emergency starter and is usually going to pitch in spot starts or long relief, that’s a great performance.
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Hamels enters May riding a two game winning streak and comes off back-to-back starts of more than 6 2/3 innings. Although the Twins did get a little hit-happy off of him in his final start of the month, he still limited their damage to just three runs and threw 55 of his 99 pitches for strikes in that game.
Meanwhile, Darvish has also won two straight. He put that awful April 18 game behind him to go six innings or more twice in a row to close out April. Darvish also posted his two highest pitch totals of the season in those games and looked fantastic in doing so. He’s on a roll now, to say the least. But there’s more to what the Rangers have going on now than just starting pitching.
The bullpen
It’s no secret that the bullpen caused most of early April’s heartache for the Texas Rangers. The Rangers could have at least four more wins and four fewer losses if not for some really shaky bullpen performances in those first two weeks.
Sam Dyson had major issues and even Jeremy Jeffress didn’t look like himself for a bit. But manager Jeff Banister held strong and made a few tweaks to the ‘pen. Keone Kela recovered from whatever funk he was in that got him booted to the minors and Matt Bush took over the closer role. Then there’s Jose Leclerc, who came out like gangbusters when asked to finish off a game.
This bullpen has weapons. Dyson will be back at some point, and when he arrives, he’ll likely ease into some lower-leverage situations. That will be vital for his success. Let him do well when the pressure is off and that can rebuild confidence for the more stressful times.
But the Rangers shouldn’t mess up what they have going on in the later innings with Kela, Bush and Leclerc. Kela has pitched 6 1/3 scoreless innings since his re-arrival and Bush has struck out a mind-blowing 13 hitters over 8 2/3 innings this season. As long as he keeps missing bats, the Rangers are in good hands.
The Astros
Sure, the Houston Astros occupy first place in the American League West at the moment. But until they take that title out of the cold, dead hands of the Texas Rangers, the silver boot still resides in Arlington. The Rangers open May with four straight games at Minute Maid Park. This could either close or widen the current five game gap between both teams.
No doubt, the Astros would love to sweep this. Their fans all but need it. Over the past two seasons, the Rangers hold a 28-10 advantage in the series. That margin is the difference between the two teams in the standings over both years and is the reason Texas made their huge comeback to win the West in 2015.
Hamels has held all current Astros to a .249 batting average against him in his career. They have just 10 home runs in 216 plate appearances against him over his lifetime. He’s 4-2 in seven career starts in Houston with a 4.23 ERA. The last time he visited them, he handed them eight innings of two run ball on just five hits for the win. Then there’s Darvish.
Current Houston hitters have a lifetime average of just .198 against Yu. In fact, they’ve combined for just two home runs in 118 plate appearances against him. He’s 3-1 in five starts with a 2.34 ERA in Houston.
Next: Astros up next after successful homestand for Rangers
Between now and the end of the season, the Rangers and Astros will square off 19 times. That makes up nearly 14% of the remaining games. Just how significant is 14%? Over 162 games, it’s a difference of over 22 wins. That could mean a difference between going 95-67 or 73-89. It could be the difference between the AL’s best record and not even sniffing the playoffs. Welcome to May, Rangers fans. Let’s have some fun!