The Rangers just finished a 4-2 road trip that saw them go to Oakland and Seattle. They swept Oakland and lost 2 of 3 to Seattle. After the road trip the Rangers find themselves tied for first place and they find themselves starting to get healthier. I will say I did not see a lot of the Saturday and Sunday games. Saturday I was busy watching the Thunder playoff game against the Grizzlies and I wasn’t home to watch the game on Sunday. From what I have read though and what I saw earlier on this trip I think we definitely learned a few things about this team during these last 6 days.

1. Martin Perez is starting to pitch like the stud pitcher he was projected to be. For several years Perez was this top prospect that the Rangers were carefully nurturing in the minor leagues. They took it slow with him because he was always among the youngest players in his league. Yet, he would go out there and put up great numbers. The Rangers did not rush him though because they knew that he was special and they were willing to wait. That wait ended last year when he became a full-fledged member of the rotation. He struggled at the beginning, but in the second half he figured it out. He went 7-3 with a 3.39 ERA the last two months of the season and was likely their second best starting pitcher. He has carried that momentum into this season. So far he is 4-0 with a 1.42 ERA and has thrown back-to-back complete game shutouts. This last one was against the division leading Oakland A’s and helped them complete the sweep. He has been able to do this with a combination of a devastating changeup and an ability to keep the ball down and get ground balls. He is figuring it out and he has been one of the main reasons the Rangers have excelled. If he pitches well again on Tuesday against the A’s he likely will win pitcher of the month for the AL. That is how far he has come. Hopefully he can continue that as the Rangers move forward through this season.
2. The starting rotation is finally healthy. Nick Martinez did get a start this last week, but with Matt Harrison now back they are as healthy as they will be until Derek Holland gets back. Their rotation is now Darvish, Perez, Ross, Lewis, and Harrison. That is a pretty stout staff. Harrison came back yesterday and looked as sharp as he did in 2012. He was working quick and getting outs. That is what he does. This team so far is 15-10 and tied for first place despite all these injuries. The number I saw yesterday was that they had 15 wins and 12 players that have spent time or still are on the DL. Now that they are getting closer to being healthy it will be interesting to see how this team does. One thing to watch over these next few weeks is the number of innings these starters get, because even though they are pitching well now it is still just April. The Rangers will need these guys healthy come September and October and it will be interesting to see how much Wash rides his guys these next few weeks until the bullpen is fully healthy.
3. The 8th inning is an issue. The Rangers lost 2 of 3 to the Mariners over the weekend primarily because of 8th inning struggles. On Friday Neal Cotts was called upon to protect a 3-2 lead and get it to Soria in the 9th. Cotts though in 20 pitches did not retire a single hitter and allowed 4 runs and the Mariners ended up winning 6-5. Sunday was worse. The Rangers had a 5-0 lead in the 4th and a 5-3 lead that it handed to Alexi Ogando in the 8th. Ogando proceeded to allow a 2-out rally that concluded with Ranger-killer Kyle Seager hitting a 3-run home run that gave the Mariners the lead. Last year Tanner Scheppers was a dominant 8th inning guy and was almost always able to hand it over to Joe Nathan. This year though it has been a constant struggle. I am sure that once Scheppers is healthy he will resume that role, but until then Cotts and Ogando will have to do a better job of making their pitches and getting people out.

Now the Rangers come back home for a another important series against the A’s. After this series there will only be 13 more games remaining between what looks like the top 2 teams in the AL West. The Rangers really made a statement with that sweep last week. All of those games were very hard-fought and the A’s will try to get some of those wins back in Arlington this week. The matchups will be Yu Darvish vs. Sonny Gray today, Martin Perez vs. Scott Kazmir, and Robbie Ross vs. Jesse Chavez. Should be 3 very competitive games. The games get started tonight at 7:05.