Tag Archives: Prince Fielder

Rangers Completely Dominate Mariners

Posted on by

0

I have been trying to think about what to focus on for today’s recap of last night’s 8-0 win against the Mariners that completed the first series win and a winning road trip for the Rangers. Do I focus on Holland’s first real good start since last August? How about Beltre’s 5 RBI night and 3-run home run that puts him 4th among primary 3rd basemen all-time? I could also focus on Andrus continuing his hot start to the season with 3 hits last night and his 5th RBI of the season. Mazara also had another hit, but made two unbelievable plays in the outfield. Ryan Rua had another couple of hits from the bottom of the order. Roughned Odor made plays on the basepaths and had another RBI hit. Prince Fielder recorded his 10th RBI of the season, just 9 games into the season. Ian Desmond made a couple of amazing plays in left field as well. It was just a complete team effort. They followed up last nights 14 hit performance with 12 hits last night. Their pitching recorded their first shutout of the season. The defense was still stellar even though they did have an error. When they play like this there is not many teams in all of baseball that can beat them. Last night the Mariners could not even stay close as the Rangers improved to 5-4 and jumped into first place of the AL West.

There was so much to like about last night’s game, but to me the most important development was Derek Holland’s performance. Holland is the X-factor in this rotation. If he can stay healthy and pitch like he did last night this rotation goes from good to possibly great. Holland last night showed improved control from his first outing as he only walked one guy. He also showed that even though his velocity may be down from what it was 3-4 years ago that when the moment calls for it he can still get it up to 95-96 mph. That moment last night was an at-bat against Robinson Cano. Cano had worked him over in the first inning on his way to a 10 pitch lineout. He was fouling everything off and then finally lined out to Delino Deshields in center. Then in the 5th he came back with two runners on and down 5-0, but one swing away from making it 5-3. Holland really attacked him and went after him with 94-95 mph sinkers. He ended up striking him out on 6 pitches and got out of the 5th with no runs allowed. It was an encouraging outing and one that he can learn from and continue to improve upon as we go throughout this 2016 season. Just think about this possible rotation come the end of May if everyone stays healthy: Hamels, Darvish, Perez, Lewis, and Holland. If Holland can continue to pitch well that will be one of the best rotations in all of baseball. I really hope that he can stay healthy. Holland throughout his Rangers career has been one of my favorite and my most frustrating pitchers to watch. I think back to Game 4 of the 2011 World Series. The Rangers had just went down 2-1 after Albert Pujols hit 3 home runs in Game 3 and Holland was facing a must win for the Rangers. He went out and pitched the game of his life that gets forgotten because of what happened in games 6 and 7 of that series. He pitched 8 2/3 innings of shutout baseball. It seemed like after that he was ready to take that next step to being one of the best lefthanders in all of baseball. Instead he has suffered from inconsistency in 2012-2013 and injuries in 2014-2015. He now is at a crossroads in his career as he faces a team option at the end of this season. The question of whether the Rangers will pick that option up depends a lot on how he does this season. The team has not had any extension talks with Holland and is in a wait-and-see mode with the pitcher. I hope that he can continue these performances.

The game also showed that Nomar Mazara can not only hit, but he can play some outfield. He made a remarkable play diving after a ball down the left-field line and then made a play running into the wall to catch a ball. Defense was thought to be a question mark with Mazara as some scouts have said that he is a little slow of foot. He showed tons of range though last night as he made those two plays. He also recorded a single in his first at-bat to make that 6 hits in his first 3 games. He just has been a phenom in these first 3 games. He has shown an advanced understanding of the strike zone and great bat control as well. It is not going to stay like this, but he has shown that whenever he is here to stay that he will be ready for each and every challenge thrown his way.

Preview of Today’s Game

2:40 p.m. Texas Rangers vs Seattle Mariners, A.J Griffin(1-0, 4.50 ERA) vs Taijuan Walker (0-0, 3.00 ERA), Fox Sports Southwest

A.J. Griffin makes his second start of the season. He went 6 innings and allowed 3 runs and was able to get the win against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim last Friday night. It was his first win since September 12, 2013. It was an encouraging start that saw Griffin get better the deeper into the game he got. The Rangers have secured the series win and a winning record for the road trip, so they need to be careful not to have a let down in today’s game. The key for Griffin today will be location. The Mariners have not hit well in this series, but if Griffin gives them free passes they will be ready and waiting to break through and get Griffin out of this game early. He must control his curveball and make it enticing enough to swing at. He must have confidence in his fastball and locate it on the corners and be sure not to miss over the plate. The game today is at 2:40 so the air will not likely be as thick making hitting the ball out of the ball park a lot easier than it is during night games.

Taijuan Walker will be going for the Mariners. He is coming off a dominating 7 inning,2 run performance against the A’s. Walker presents some of the same challenges Iwakuma presents. He is a tall, lanky righty that is coming downhill right at the hitter. His fastball can really eat up right handed batters as he is coming straight downhill at them. Walker can struggle with walks though. He averages about 2.0 walks per 9 innings. The Rangers must be patient, take advantage when he does leave one over the plate, and run up his pitch count early. If Walker gets into a groove early it could make for a long day for the offense.

Player to Watch

Yesterday I chose Derek Holland and was right. I said he would pitch into the 7th inning only giving 1-2 runs and would pick up his first win and quality start of the season. He went 6.2 innings, 0 runs allowed, and did win. That was my first right pick of the season.

Today I am going with Roughned Odor. I think Walker will pitch very well against the righties in the lineup, but I think Odor with his bat speed will be able to turn around a Walker fastball. I could definitely see 1-2 hits today and I think he will make a play on the basepaths that will make a difference in today’s game.

The Rangers try to end this road trip on top before coming home to start a 4-game series against the potentially still undefeated Baltimore Orioles on Thursday night. Hopefully they will not be looking ahead to that and Cole Hamels starting on Thursday. Go Rangers!!!!

Rookies help Rangers defeat the Mariners

Posted on by

0

This gallery contains 1 photo.

    The Rangers got back to .500 last night behind contributions from the two most inexperienced players on the roster, Nomar Mazara and Brett Nicholas. Nicholas was making his MLB debut last night and went 2-4 with a single … Continue reading →

Rangers Will Not Be 162-0 in 2016

Posted on by

0

The Texas Rangers lost their first game of the 2016 season in spectacular fashion last night losing 10-2 to the Seattle Mariners. It was a mixture of missed opportunities early and the new pieces of the bullpen not being able to keep it close late. This was different from Opening Day in that the team did hit, not well, but they did get hits and provided themselves with numerous opportunities throughout the game to give themselves a lead going into the 7th-9th innings. In the 4th inning Elvis Andrus and Robinson Chirinos provided run scoring singles, but outside of those hits, the Rangers could not get the big base hit when they had runners on base. Jared Sandler, who does the radio pre and post game shows for the Rangers, had this interesting tweet about the game last night.

That just is not acceptable. To me the one that stands out the most is the 7th inning. The Mariners had just went ahead 4-2 in the top of the inning, but the heart of the Rangers order was coming up in the bottom of the inning. Shin Soo Choo starts off with a 10 pitch walk. Prince Fielder then steps up and instead of continuing to make him work and trying to find his pitch, he swings at the first pitch and pops it straight up. Adrian Beltre then proceeds to do the same thing. Mitch Moreland works the count, but still ends up striking out on the 8th pitch. Fielder and Beltre have to be better there. It feels like they both went up with the approach of just swinging to just hit the game-tying home run. It did not work and in the end it did not matter. I still like what the team is doing. The approach at the plate for the most part has still been really good, the results and runs just have not been there yet. If they continue with this the runs will come, its just Hernandez and Iwakuma can be very difficult to face.

The concerning part of the game to me though is that Tony Barnette and Tom Wilhelmsen were just awful today. Barnette was making his MLB debut after spending the past 7 years in Japan. He started out well enough by getting the 2 of the first 3 hitters out, but then he left one up and over the plate to Leonys Martin who drove it in the left field corner to score Seth Smith. Then he allowed another single to Nori Aoki to make the score 4-2. At that point Bannister removed him in favor of Jake Diekman. He was able to get out of the inning with one pitch on a groundout against Ketel Marte. That was minor compared to the disaster Tom Wilhelmsen was. Wilhelmsen came in and took their chances of winning and flushed them down the toilet. He gave up a home run to Robinson Cano to lead of the inning, a double to Nelson Cruz, an RBI-double to Kyle Seager, a home run to Seth Smith, and then after a coaching visit he plunked Chris Ianneta and then proceeded to yell back-and-forth with the Mariners catcher. That got him ejected. So overall not the best night at the office and actually it might have one of the worst appearances of his career as his line ended up 0.0 innings pitched, 5 runs, 4 hits, 2 home runs given up. He was a disaster last night. The plunking of Ianneta led to both managers coming out onto the field and getting into it from their side of the diamond. It was ridiculous and completely unnecessary. I hope Wilhelmsen did not hit him on purpose, but the timing of it made it look like it was as it came right after the Seth Smith home run. Andrew Faulkner then ended up coming in and giving up another home run to Luis Sardinas to make it 10-2 and that would be game,set,match to the Mariners. It was a loss and it sucks, but it was one the Rangers deserved to lose. They did not come through with enough timely hits and the bullpen did not pitch well enough to give them an opportunity late. The loss drops the Rangers record to 1-1 and the Mariners improve to 1-1.

Other Game Notes

  • I got through all of that intro without even mentioning the starting pitchers. Iwakuma was not his usual dominant self against the Rangers, but he made the pitches when he needed to and was able to labor through 5 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs, and 3 walks. Iwakuma was able to get out of jams in the 1st, 3rd, and 5th innings. The only time the Rangers got to him for runs was the 4th with the RBI singles by Elvis Andrus and Robinson Chirinos. So while he was not great he was good enough. The same can also be said for Martin Perez. He pitched 6 innings giving up 2 runs as well. He gave a run on a single to Chris Ianneta in the 2nd and then a solo home run to Nelson Cruz in the 4th inning. He was able to make big pitches though to get out of innings. In the second he got a ground ball double play off the bat of Dae-Ho Lee and then got another inning ending double play in the 6th off the bat of Kyle Seager. He left with the score tied 2-2. Iwakuma and Perez both did their jobs in giving their teams an opportunity to win. The bullpen for the Mariners pitched better than the bullpen for the Rangers. The Rangers still have not won a game that Iwakuma started for the Mariners since 2013.
  • Ian Desmond has had quite the introduction to the American League. Yesterday it was King Felix and today it was Hisashi Iwakuma. Two very difficult pitchers to face because of what all they bring to the table. Hernandez is about the variety of pitches and his ability to locate all of those pitches. Yesterday it was Iwakuma moving all of his pitches in and around the strike zone and from different arm angles. It made Desmond look helpless up there, especially in the 5th when he struck out on a pitch way up and out of the strike zone. Iwakuma is a master of putting the ball on different planes throughout an at-bat. He can run it high, have it dip into the dirt, or cut it to hit the corners of the plate. He leaves very few pitches in the middle of the strike zone. Everything is on the corners. It makes it hard for an umpire to call and even harder for the batter to hit. He did get his first hit though in the 9th when he beat out a groundball to Kyle Seager. It did have to be reviewed, but the review showed that he was safe. So he is no longer 0-for. Today should be easier Miley is not as dominant as these last two guys are.

Preview of Today’s Game

1:05 p.m., Fox Sports Oklahoma, Fox Sports SW, Wade Miley vs Colby Lewis

This afternoon is the rubber game of the series as both try to end the first series of the season with a home win. It would be a huge statement for either team to claim this first divisional series of the season. Wade Miley will be making his first appearance in a game for the Mariners after being acquired in the offseason from the Boston Red Sox. The left-hander will be looking to improve upon his 1-2 record and his 3.86 ERA in his career against the Rangers. Look for the Rangers to try to take advantage of his lack of control in the Rangers ballpark. In two starts there he has 1.286 WHIP(Walks at Hits/Innings Pitched). The Rangers hitters just need to be as patient at the plate as they have been in the first two games and then drive the ball when they have an opportunity to score runs. Keep an eye on the right-handed hitters today. I would not be surprised at all to see Ryan Rua get his first start of the season against the left-hander. Miley lost most lefties does not fare as well against righties as he does against lefties. I would expect Moreland to get the day off and for Rua to play first.

As for the Rangers Colby Lewis makes his first start of the season. Lewis resigned with the team in the offseason and had an up-and-down spring. Arizona is normally not good for a guy with his stuff though. He is a flyball pitcher and in Arizona fly balls turn into home runs very easily. The most important thing though is he got his innings in, he is ready, and he is healthy. The most important thing for him today is location. Can he spot his fastball on the corners of the plate? He needs to have his slider working and be enticing enough to swing at. When he is good that slider dips at the last moment down and away from the righties and down and in to lefties. When he is not good the slider looks flat and hangs up and over the plate. It needs to have that sharp brake to it. He also needs to his changeup working for his fastball to look better as well. At this point in his career he does not have what would be classified as great stuff, he has what would be considered good control and veteran poise out on the mound. That is what has made him successful throughout his career and what led him to a career high 17 wins last season. The key batters for him will be Robinson Cano, Nelson Cruz, and Kyle Seager. If he can silence their bats and keep them in ballpark he will be doing a good job.

Player to Watch

Review from Yesterday: I chose Roughned Odor yesterday and he went 0-3 with a walk and a run scored. He did score the tying run and for the second straight day he made a spectacular play in the field. I wouldn’t say it was a total loss. He did have an impact on the game early with his play in the field and in the one time he did get on base he scored. He did not have as big of a day though as Chirinos and Andrus had.

Today’s Player: LF Ian Desmond. I am going with this just off of feel and no stats to back me up. Desmond hit very well this spring, but has started with facing two pitchers he is not very familiar with and that has led to just one hit in the first two games. Today I believe will be different. It is a lefty on the mound and one that may leave one up and over the plate for Desmond to hit. I would not be surprised to see Desmond come through with a 2-5 type day. I believe he will make some sort of play in the field as Lewis is more of a flyball pitcher. So there will be more plays for Desmond and everyone in the outfield today. Ian Desmond is my player to watch for today.

Should be a good game with more runs scored by both sides. Hopefully the Rangers can win before they depart on a 7-game road trip to Anaheim this weekend then Seattle to start next week.

Go Rangers!!!!!!!

1-Hit Wonder

Posted on by

0

Fireworks explode over the stadium at the end of the national anthem as the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners line up before their game on opening day on Monday, April 4, 2016, at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. (Smiley N. Pool/Dallas Morning News/TNS) 1182888

Fireworks explode over the stadium at the end of the national anthem as the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners line up before their game on opening day on Monday, April 4, 2016, at Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas. (Smiley N. Pool/Dallas Morning News/TNS) 1182888

 

The Rangers somehow won their opening day game 3-2 against the Mariners yesterday with only one hit. It was enough though as the Rangers took advantage of some shoddy Mariners defense, walks by Felix Hernandez, and aggressive base running by Roughned Odor all in the 5th inning. Cole Hamels and the bullpen made sure that the 1-run lead would be enough and it was as Shawn Tolleson closed the door in the 9th inning. It was a great win, because the Seattle Mariners had won 8 straight Opening Day games behind the pitching of Felix Hernandez, but the Rangers were able to steal this one away and end that long winning streak. I am still scratching at my head at how it happened, but it did and the Rangers move forward to game 2 as the only AL West team to have won yesterday. The Angels lost 9-0 to the Cubs, the A’s lost to the White Sox 4-3, and the Astros were postponed by inclement weather in New York. Lets dive deeper into the game though because only 5 runs were scored, but a lot of notable things happened in the game.

The game started with the introductions, the flyover, and Bobby Jones and Tom Grieve threw out the first pitch as they are celebrating their 50th year in baseball in 2016. Cole Hamels was very sharp for most of the day, but he missed over the plate twice in the first two innings and that led to solo home runs by Robinson Cano and Ranger-killer Kyle Seager. For the longest time that looked like it would be enough. Felix was not as sharp as normal, but the Rangers were not hitting him at all the first four innings. He walked one batter in each of the first two innings, but settled down after that to get the Rangers in order in the 3rd and 4th innings. One thing the Rangers did do through these first 4 innings was make Hernandez work.

That takes us the 5th inning the score was 2-0 and the Rangers still had not gotten a hit. Odor showed patience at the plate and worked a 5-pitch walk to start the inning. That is one thing I noticed throughout the game is a better approach at the plate by the hitters against Felix Hernandez. It was noticeably different than what we saw last season when the Rangers faced Hernandez or any tough pitcher really. Odor then made things happen by stealing 2nd and making sure his hand did not come off the base during the tag. Tom Grieve and Steve Busby even made note of that during the broadcast that runners will have to be more careful with their slides this season and makings sure they never lose contact with the base.  So Odor is on second and then continues to be aggressive by running to 3rd on a ground ball to Kyle Seager. Seager I think was caught off guard by Odor and took his eye off the ball in trying to make a quick tag and did not catch the bouncing ball. Odor was on 3rd and Elvis Andrus was on 1st. Robinson Chirinos then sacrifice bunted Andrus over to 2nd. Delino Deshields then took the Rangers 2nd walk of the inning and it was followed by another walk by Shin Soo Choo which scored a run to make it 2-1. That brought up Prince Fielder with the bases loaded. He proceeds to drop a fly ball right in front of left-fielder Nori Aoki for the only hit of the day by the Rangers. That tied the game. There was still only one out when Adrian Beltre came to the plate and he hit a smash ground ball to shortstop Ketel Marte and he botched it and it gave the Rangers their 3rd run of the inning, the lead, and eventually the win. 3 walks, 2 errors, and 1 hit led to 3 runs for the Rangers. It goes to show that sometimes its not who hits the ball the most or hardest, but it is the team who takes advantage of the opportunities they were given. The Mariners hit two long home runs, but could not do anything other than that, the Rangers had one hit, but made the most of the opportunities the Mariners gave them in the 5th inning.

Neither team really threatened after that. The Mariners had a base-runner in the 6th after an Elvis Andrus throwing error, and the runner advanced on a wild pitch by Cole Hamels, but did not advance further after Hamels finished off the inning with a strikeout of nemesis Kyle Seager. The Mariners then got two more runners on in the 7th, but Hamels once again came through with a strikeout and a groundout to end the threat. That was it as Diekman and Tolleson came in to finish off the game. Cole Hamels ended up going 7 innings, with 2 runs allowed, 4 hits, 8 k’s, and 3 BB’s and getting the win. Felix Hernandez took his first Opening Day loss of his career in going 6 innings, 3 runs, 1 earned run, 1 hit, 6 k’s, and 5 BB’s. It was also Felix Hernandez’s first loss against the Rangers since a 1-0 loss back on June 13, 2014. He won all 5 starts made against the Rangers last season. The approach was a lot better today. I remember that the games he pitched against them last season the players were defeated before they even stepped into the batters box. Today they looked confident and appeared as if they had a better plan of attack against him. That helped lead to the victory and a 1-0 start to the 2016 season.

Notes from the Game

  • There was a weird play in the 1st inning. Shin Soo Choo had stolen 2nd base and the catcher was talking to the umpire and then the umpires conferred and they ruled that Prince Fielder had interfered with the catcher in falling over the plate. Rule 6.06(c) states that if the batter is ruled to have interfered with the catcher then the batter will be called out and the runner will return to their previous base. Fielder fell across home plate in order to get away from the pitch, but in doing so he came across the area that Chris Ianneta was throwing into and the umpire ruled that he had interfered. Jeff Bannister said when asked about that call, “That’s the first time in my career I’ve seen a hitter have to move to avoid getting hit by a baseball, fall across the plate and get called for obstruction or interference. But it’s the rule.” That short circuited what could have been a run-scoring inning by the Rangers.
  • The defense was outstanding for the most part today. Elvis did have the throwing error in the 6th inning, but other than that everything else was clean. He and Roughned Odor made the two plays of the game. Elvis made a play in the 3rd inning going to his right, he got the bouncing ground ball did a 360 degree spin and then threw the ball on the run accurately to first base to get the speedy Ketel Marte.  It was a great play that was one of the top plays of the day on SportsCenter last night. Roughned Odor also had a great play ranging very far to his right almost the right field line where he snagged a ground ball and threw to Shawn Tolleson who was sprinting to first base to get Kyle Seager. Ian Desmond also looked comfortable in left field. He only had a ground ball hit to him as there was only one fly out the entire game by the Mariners.
  • Speaking of no fly outs, Cole Hamels was outstanding today. He was making his 3rd Opening Day start of his career and even though he gave up 2 early home runs to Cano and Seager, he was still able to buckle down after that and pitch an outstanding game. He kept everything low in the zone and forced the Mariners into 8 strikeouts and 10 ground ball outs. That is how you have to pitch in Arlington throughout the season. Hamels also pitched well in the couple of times that he got into trouble. He showed his veteran poise out there in being able to get out of trouble each time the Mariners looked like they might tie the game. If his performance down the stretch and in the postseason last year did not convince people, hopefully this performance will show that he is the ace of this staff, even when Yu Darvish comes back. I also thought him and Robinson Chirinos worked very well together. It was well known last season that he preferred to work with Chris Gimenez, but he is out with an ankle infection right now. Chirinos did spend the offseason working to develop a better relationship with Hamels in order to be ready for the upcoming season and put himself in a position to be able to be his catcher. I would say it worked out yesterday as they seemed to be on the same page the whole game. This will be something to follow as we go throughout the season though and see if they can maintain that chemistry.
  • On the other side Mike Montgomery was outstanding late in the game for the Mariners. He came in relief for Hernandez in the 7th and was able to mow through the heart of the Rangers order in the 7th and the 8th. He struck out 4 of the 7 hitters he faced and only allowed one base-runner, a walk to Mitch Moreland. He had his curveball and slider working very well. He also showed very good life with his fastball. I did not expect that.
  • Overall both starters were very good, kept the hitters off-balance all game, the Mariners made a few mistakes in one inning and the Rangers capitalized to the tune of 3 runs. That allowed them to win the game on the back of a strong start by Cole Hamels and shutdown relief by Jake Diekman and Shawn Tolleson. Sometimes that is all it takes.

Preview of Tonight’s Game

Game Time 7:05 p.m., Fox Sports Oklahoma and Fox Sports SW, Hisashi Iwakuma vs Martin Perez. 

Tonight is game two of the series and the Mariners will send recently resigned pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma to go against Martin Perez. Iwakuma pitched very well in his two starts against the Rangers last season. The 34 year old right-hander went 7 innings in each of his two starts and gave up 3 runs in one start and 2 runs in the second start and picked up the win in each start. The Rangers have actually not won a game started by Iwakuma since August 24, 2013 and he has not taken a loss against the Rangers since July 4th, 2013. He has been outstanding against this team whether it be in Seattle or Texas. That will be something to keep an eye on tonight to see if the Rangers can break through against Iwakuma and be able to pick up a win. Martin Perez will also be making his first start of the season. He has had a good Spring Training and Bannister decided to reward him with the number 2 spot. Perez is coming into a big year. He is now two years removed from Tommy John surgery and so a lot more will be expected out of him. He has the stuff and makeup to be an outstanding pitcher in this league. It is more mental with him. Can he keep himself from losing his focus during a game and stay mentally engaged through the 6 or 7 innings that he pitches. That is something he struggled with last year was if someone made a mistake behind him or if he walked a batter he would let it snowball in a hurry instead of being able to shut it off. The biggest example of this was the beatdown by the Yankees last season. He had a great first inning, the Rangers came and scored 5 runs in support of him, but then he allowed a leadoff double to Chris Young and before you know it the Yankees had tied the game at 5 and he was out of there. He pitched much better after that game, but the mental lapses still were a problem. He is going to have to be much better with that this season and I expect he will be. Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News has said he expects Martin Perez to have a breakout season in 2016. He has everything he needs to be great. He pitches with good velocity, he is able to spot his fastball and changeup on either corner of the plate, and he keeps the ball low. The bullpen is fresh though and so don’t be surprised if Bannister decides to go to them early if need be. No need to force Perez into a high pitch count situation if it is not necessary.

Player to Watch tonight

Roughned Odor. This could be another low scoring game in which his ability to make plays could be crucial. I expect him to go 1-3, but get on-base twice and watch out if he gets on-base because he is going to make things happen once on-base. That is where he is the most dangerous. If the Rangers win I expect Odor will have a large hand in it on both the offensive side and with his glove as well.

Should be a great game tonight. Hopefully the Rangers win this game and the series. Go Rangers!!!!!

Opening Day is Here at Last

Posted on by

0

This gallery contains 1 photo.

  We are finally to Opening Day 2016 for the Texas Rangers. It has been a very long winter since the Jose Bautista bat flip heard around the world. A winter of discontent among the players and fans. Winter is … Continue reading →

Season in Review: September/October

Posted on by

0

He pitched the Rangers to the Division Series can he pitch them into the ALCS today?

Hamels pitches Rangers to division in game 162

 

Yesterday was my 100th post and in those 100 posts we have covered everything from the disaster that was 2014 to the comeback that was 2015. It has been quite the journey and I hope the next 100 takes the journey from this postseason to possibly a World Series next season. We shall see. Today is the final part of our look back at 2015. It has been a roller coaster of a season so far. The Rangers started off down and in last place in April. They rose back to 2nd place by the end of May. In June they stayed afloat despite injuries to key players. In July they fell way back of the Astros and nearly fell out of third. In August after the trades they rose back to being in 2nd place and leading the wild card. The question became as we entered in September would the Rangers fall back in this month or would they continue to surge. The answer would become both. It was a great month and stressful month of baseball that ended with a celebration.

As we start the month the Rangers are in San Diego for their last interleague series of the season. They had just lost to Tyson Ross and been one-hit the previous night. They were able to bounce back though and win the next game 8-6. The highlight of the game though was Elvis Andrus stealing home.

That was old school Elvis right there. That was a good sign for the team as September was getting started. They won the next night in San Diego in extra innings when Mitch Moreland had the game-winning RBI double. The next day was an off-day and then it got serious as the Rangers were starting a 23-game stretch against AL West teams. This would be where it would be determined what the team would be. Would they be the 2nd wild card, AL West Champion, or out of the playoffs entirely? This 23 game stretch would go a long way to determining that. As we entered into the stretch the team was still leading the 2nd wild card and were 2 games back in the division. They still were in a good position but that all could change if they didn’t continue winning games.

They began the stretch with a 3 game series in Anaheim. C.J. Cron who dominated Rangers pitching all season led the Angels to the victory in the first game and they won 5-2. Derek Holland had maybe his last good start of the season the next day when he pitched 8 innings and held the Angels to 1 run and the Rangers won the game 2-1. They lost the series though the next day when Colby Lewis had another poor start and the Rangers lost 7-0. Not a great start but at least they won one in Anaheim. The next trip took them to Seattle. They struggled all season against Seattle and were facing a 4 game series against the Mariners. The Rangers at least needed a split and that is exactly what they got. Gallardo pitched well and the Rangers won 3-0. They won the next night 9-6 in a game that Cole Hamels pitched. They really relied on the long ball in that game. Shin Soo Choo, Mitch Moreland, Roughned Odor, and Joey Gallo all went deep. Hamels did his thing where he pitched 7 innings and did well enough to get the win. The last two games did not go as well they lost 6-0, and 5-0. I think it was exhaustion from the long road trip and the fact that maybe they had got what they needed and then relaxed. They ended the 10 game road trip with a 5-5 record and were still in the lead for the second wild card ahead of the Twins by one game and still in 2nd place behind the Astros by 2.5 games.

The success of the 10 game homestand would be determined by how they fared against the Houston Astros in the 4 game series. They first had to face the Oakland A’s and could not afford to really look ahead. They did not want to lose ground any further before the 4 game series. Colby Lewis was starting the first game and had not been pitching well heading into this start. 3 straight really poor starts, but on this night he was nearly perfect. He started the game by pitching 7 perfect innings. He gave up a hit to lead off the 8th, but the Rangers were still able to win 4-0 and get the homestand off to a good start. Gallardo got beat the next night though 5-3. The Rangers bounced back in the third game and won 12-4 in the series finale behind a solid start from Chi Chi Gonzalez. Choo who has been red hot at this point continued hitting in this game getting 3 hits and a home run.

Shin Soo Choo who was signed in the winter of 2014 due to his ability to get on base and hit for power had really done neither in his time for the Rangers prior to the All Star break in 2015. He had really struggled and was often times mentioned as one of the worst contracts in all of baseball. In the first half of 2015 he expanded his zone more often than not and looked way too cautious on defense causing him not to get to a lot of balls. The thought with Choo was to just get to the offseason and maybe they can  trade him and hand right field over to Nomar Mazara next season. The story was told that during the All Star break he talked to his wife and she told him to just be himself and to not think about the contract. He had been dwelling too much on how much he was getting paid and not enough on what he did to warrant getting that contract. He came back from the break and started taking more walks, getting more hits, and going after the ball on defense. Day-by-day his average started to go up, his OBP skyrocketed, and he started to hit for more power as he saw better pitches. It was remarkable to see what happened. He hit .274 in August and then in September he may have been the best hitter not just for the Rangers, but the best hitter in the entire American League. As he hit better the team played better. The lineup with him at the 2 hole started to flow better. It gave Fielder and Beltre numerous RBI opportunities. That is why Fielder and Beltre were among the RBI leaders for the month of September and October and that is all Choo. He was getting on base in half of his plate appearances. He hit for a .387 batting average and slugged .613. It may have been his best month as a pro. It was unbelievable to watch and renewed my faith in him heading into 2016. He was the comeback player in my mind from where he was in April to where he was in September.

As the Rangers headed into the season-defining series against the Astros they had momentum and were hungry. Would it be enough to defeat a good Astros team? The Astros had to be thinking they at least needed a split, the Rangers if they wanted to make a dent needed at least 3 and maybe to sweep to really grab the momentum. In the first game the Rangers were down 2-1 against Scott Kazmir when Mitch Moreland who started at first hit a 2-run home run to put the Rangers ahead and Prince Fielder hit a 2-run home run in the 8th provided breathing room. Moreland who normally doesn’t start against tough lefties started at first base when Bannister decided to experiment with Napoli in left field. Hamilton was still being bothered by a sore knee and actually had surgery to clean out his knee. Bannister instead of starting Ryan Rua or Ryan Strasbourger opted for Mike Napoli in order to get his bat in the lineup and to keep Mitch Moreland’s bat in the lineup. It was controversial at the time but it worked and helped the Rangers be able to compete against the tough left handers down the stretch. The second game went much like the first. The Rangers were down 5-4 in the middle innings and came back with a RBI double from Adrian Beltre to score Prince Fielder and tie the game in the 4th inning. The game stay tied until the 9th. Prince Fielder led off with a single. Drew Stubbs came on to pinch-run for him. Adrian Beltre singled and Stubbs went to 3rd. Mitch Moreland then came in to face Will Harris who was a righty that fared very well against lefties. Moreland was up to bat and no outs and he did this.

He delivered the Rangers to first place in the division. The Rangers had been the chasers since the first weekend of the season. They had been as far back as 9 games at one point and looked dead in the water. They played hard, won a ton of games and with this sac fly caught and passed the Astros and were in first place in the division for the first time all season. The season was not over yet. It was great to be in first midway through September, but the journey was not over yet. They still had two games against the Astros and if Houston came back and won the next two then all of this would have been for nothing. The next night after jumping into first place they were facing Cy Young favorite Dallas Keuchel. It would not be an easy game or so one would think. The Rangers took that momentum from the previous night and scored 6 runs in the first inning against Keuchel and ended up scoring 9 runs overall. Keuchel could not get out of the 5th inning. It was maybe his worst start of the season. Once again Choo was in the middle of it as he had another 3 hits, Fielder had 5 RBI’s, and Mike Napoli had 2 hits and a home run as well. It was a stunning night and the Rangers won 14-3. All of a sudden the Rangers are in position to get the sweep and put their foot down as the AL West leader. Lewis pitched well in the finale only allowing 2 runs and after a slow start the Rangers scored 5 runs in the late innings to complete the sweep and win 8-2. Choo was again in the middle of it as he picked up another 4 hits. As the series ended the Rangers were now in first place in the AL West by 2.5 on the Astros and 5.0 games on the Angels.

The Rangers got what they needed and now just needed to hold on down the stretch. Their first test came against the Mariners and they did not fare so well as they lost 2 of 3. Thankfully this was it for games against the Mariners. They then left for a road trip against the A’s and Astros. They needed to really sweep the last place A’s and win at least one against the Astros. They did sweep the A’s in scoring 26 runs in 3 games. They had some momentum heading into Houston. This would be the final series against the Astros and they were up 3.5 games at this point. They needed to win at least one, but they would be in first place even if they got swept. Game one saw Gallardo facing Scott Kazmir. Gallardo pitched well in 4.2 innings and the bullpen was lights out after that and the Rangers won 6-2. As I keep saying Choo was in the middle of this victory as he had 3 hits and a home run. Derek Holland continued his struggles as he had little to no control and the Astros came back in the middle innings and beat the Rangers 9-7.  Choo had another 2 hits in 4 plate appearances. Martin Perez pitched well in the finale giving up 2 runs, no earned, but Dallas Keuchel pitched like the Cy Young winner he is likely to be. The Astros won 4-2. The Rangers did get the one win they needed though and were still 2.5 games up as the final week of the season was getting started.

The last week of the season saw the Rangers facing a 3 game series against the Tigers and a 4 game series against the Angels, all at home. The team likely needed to win at least 4 to secure the division. They got halfway there by winning 2 of 3 against the Tigers. They lost the first game against Justin Verlander, but Cole Hamels got a victory in a game in which he pitched poorly. Gallardo finished off the series by pitching 5.1 innings and only giving up 2 runs. The Rangers were faced with a 4 game series against the Angels with a magic number of 2 to eliminate the Angels and 2 to eliminate the Astros. The team was pushing hard to get it finished, but it would not be easy. Derek Holland again struggled with his control but pitched well enough to only allow 3 runs. Adrian Beltre had a big 3-run double to provide some space with a 4-1 lead. The bullpen held on and the Rangers clinched a playoff spot and eliminated the Angels from the division race with a 5-3 win. The Rangers needed just one victory in their final 3 to clinch the division. They could not get it done on Friday night as the Angels won in the 9th with a base hit from Mike Trout and a RBI single from Albert Pujols to win it. Jered Weaver dominated in that game. They had a chance on Saturday and held a lead in the 9th of 10-6. They had come back from a 5-1 deficit in the 5th to tie and then take the lead with runs in the 6th and 7th innings. The Angels though came back with 9th inning lead off home run from Erick Aybar and Kole Calhoun off Shawn Tolleson, then Ross Ohlendorf was brought in and he could not get outs as the Angels came back to win 11-10. It was a punch in the gut. It was not known would the team rebound on Sunday? Would they face two one-game playoffs coming up on Monday and Tuesday? They set up Cole Hamels to pitch on the last day though for reasons such as this. He was magnificent. He gave up a home run in the first, but dominated after that. He pitched a complete game in game 162 and the Rangers won the game and won the division. It was Hamels’ best start as a Ranger and it came at the most opportune time. The Rangers needed him to come up big and he came up really big on this day. With that start he delivered the Rangers to the division series for the first time since 2011. It was the 6th division championship for the Rangers as a franchise. The Toronto Blue Jays would be waiting for them. On this day the team celebrated a long journey from last place all of last season and into April this season to AL West Champion in 2015. It was a great season. The division series did not go as planned. They won games 1 and 2 in Toronto, including an extra inning classic in game 2. They lost games 3 and 4 though when the pitching did not perform as expected. The Jays outlasted them in what was a classic Game 5 that saw so many things that we had never seen happen in the 7th inning. Jose Bautista capped it off with a monstrous 3-run home run that blew the top off of the Rogers Centre and he flipped his bat all the way to Ottawa.

That disappointment should not take away from what was a great season. 2015 had no expectations, especially after they lost Yu Darvish before the season and then definitely after they lost Derek Holland during the home opener. The team did not quit though and took on the attitude of their manager. They played hard on a night-in night-out basis. Players like Roughned Odor, Shin Soo Choo, Prince Fielder, and Mitch Moreland all came back from injuries or demotions this season and produced in a big way. The no name pitching staff kept them in the race for most of the first half while reinforcements recovered from injury. Then once healthy the team thrived and played very well. Jon Daniels also had maybe his best season as he brought in Wandy Rodriguez,Cole Hamels, Jake Diekman, Sam Dyson, Will Venable, Mike Napoli, and Drew Stubbs and they all played a role in this team winning the division. Ross Detwiler did not work out as planned, but Yovanni Gallardo did and he pitched very well once the Rangers figured out how best to use him. Jeff Bannister in his rookie season as manager pulled all the right strings as the right time and got better as the season went along. I think he will be even better in his second season as he learns how to best use his bullpen.

There will be some changes for next season though. The Rangers will have a new coaching staff. Mike Maddux left to go to Washington. They let go of bullpen coach Andy Hawkins, and hitting coach Dave Magadan. Looks like Doug Brocail will replace Maddux and it has not been announced who will replace Magadan. They also have some free agents like Colby Lewis, Yovanni Gallardo, Mike Napoli, Drew Stubbs, and others. Next week I will be writing a full length offseason preview. I will look at possible trade candidates, positions they should look to improve, and possible free agent signings. I think now after writing this review I am finally ready to move on to 2016. Spring Training cannot get here soon enough.

Season in Review: August

Posted on by

0

Sam Dyson closes out the game against the Astros

Sam Dyson closes out the sweep against the Astros

 

It has been a crazy week with my work schedule changing for a few days and not having a lot of free time to continue to write this series, but I am back now and am committed to finishing the series this week. I want to finish the review so that we can move on to writing about about what the Rangers will do this offseason.  We left off last week with the trade deadline. The Rangers had just acquired Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman from the Phillies and Sam Dyson from the Marlins. Cole Hamels gave them that ace starter they had lacked since Yu Darvish went down in Spring Training. Jake Diekman, a lefty, and Sam Dyson, a righty, helped give the bullpen more depth than it had previously. Both of those guys were power pitchers. Diekman is a lefty that can throw up to 100 mph and Sam Dyson is a righty with a mid 90’s sinker. It was like Jon Daniels gave Jeff Bannister a couple more toys to play with. Bannister immediately put these guys in as late inning relief guys. The team sent down rookie Keone Kela, who had been the Rangers 7th and sometimes 8th inning pitcher, in order to get him rest. He had been pitching a lot for this team. As we head into August the team is playing better having beat the Yankees in the last two games of the 4 game series and then starting off the series with the defending champion San Francisco Giants by beating Madison Bumgarner on Friday.

Cole Hamels made his start in the second game of the series and 1st day in August. Unfortunately for him it was against the team that he did not have good numbers against. He has struggled against the Giants throughout his career to the tune of a 4.33 ERA and just 3 weeks prior this start he had faced them in a Phillies uniform and allowed 9 runs in 3.1 innings. This time though he was not great, but he did pitch 7.2 innings and he did allow 5 runs. He did leave with the lead though, but unfortunately the bullpen could not hold it and the Rangers lost in extra innings when Hunter Pence hit a home run to put the Giants on top. The next day the Rangers sent Martin Perez to the mound and he was spectacular. He was efficient with his pitches, he got tons of ground balls and had a shot to get a complete game shutout. It was the complete opposite of his previous start against the Yankees in that 21-5 debacle. It was marvelous to watch and showed how much potential Perez has as a starter in this league. Controversially though Bannister removed Perez with one out in the 9th inning of a 2-0 game. Perez’s pitch count was only at 80 pitches, but Bannister felt like he did not want to put too much stress onto Perez’s arm this soon after Tommy John recovery. He had also just given up a double and the tying run was at the plate. He brought in Jake Diekman who walked his only batter. Then Sam Dyson came into the game to try to finish it, because Shawn Tolleson was unavailable. He gave up base hits to the first two guys he faced and a run. It was now 2-1 with Hunter Pence again at the plate and this happened.

 

A double play to end the game and the series. The Rangers won the series against the Giants and had seemingly righted the ship heading into the series against the division leading Houston Astros. At this point in the season the Rangers were looking more like a wild card team, but also keeping an eye on the division. They were 8 games back of the Astros and really needed a sweep if they were going to compete for the division. They won the first behind Adrian Beltre’s 3rd cycle of his career and won the game 12-9. The Rangers came back the next night from a 2-0 deficit and won 4-3. The bullpen was able to lock down the game and a series win by pitching 4 innings of scoreless relief coming on after Yovanni Gallardo pitched 5 innings. Now we get to the finale of the series and this a game the Rangers really needed to win to make some headway and catching the Astros. Picking up one game is good, but being able to pick up 3 games on the division leader would be huge. It was going to be Scott Kazmir against Nick Martinez. Kazmir had dominated the Rangers all season whether it was when he was with the A’s or Astros the Rangers had just not been able to figure him out. Nick Martinez though having out dueled Madison Bumgarner in his previous start felt confident. He once again pitched well only allowing 1 run in 5 innings. The Rangers like they had been doing throughout this homestand got on the board early and were able to hold on late. They scored 3 runs in the first and 1 run in the second for a 4-0. That would be the only runs they would score. The Astros got one back in the 4th, 2 back in the 6th to make it 4-3. A bullpen combination of Sam Freeman, Spencer Patton, Jake Diekman, and Sam Dyson held them scoreless the last 3 innings to take the sweep with another 4-3 victory. All of a sudden the Rangers were back above .500 at 54-53 and 5 games back in the division. The Rangers bullpen was pitching lights out and the offense was doing just enough to get wins. It was nerve-wracking to watch but fun all the same.

Following that series which got them closer in the division race the rest of the month was going to be about the wild card. They had series against the Minnesota Twins, Tampa Bay Rays, Detroit Tigers, Toronto Blue Jays, and Baltimore Orioles. These were all teams that they were either chasing or teams that were chasing them for one of the two wild card spots. They also had two series against their nemesis this season the Seattle Mariners. These three weeks would either help them climb up the standings for the wild card heading into September or if they did not play well it would end any chance they had at the postseason. They did not get off to a great start losing 2 of 3 to the Twins in Minnesota. Then they came back home to face the Rays. They started off with come from behind win that saw Delino Deshields hit his first MLB home run in the 7th to tie it and then they were able to go ahead on a Josh Hamilton sac fly and win 5-3. They won 12-4 the next night as they hit Rays All Star and ace Chris Archer pretty hard. That win moved them in front of the Rays in the wild card standings. The Rangers won 5-3 the next day to complete the sweep. The momentum would continue as they won 2 of 3 against the Mariners. Then they went on the road to face the Tigers who were still holding on to slim hopes that they could get back in the race. The Rangers would face them in a 4 game series in Detroit. They lost the first game 4-0 as Alfredo Simon pitched a one-hitter against them. They bounced back the next night and won 2-0 behind another dominant outing from Colby Lewis. They won again on Saturday 5-3 with another good start from Yovanni Gallardo. They finished off the series with another win 4-2 as Cole Hamels picked up his first win in a Rangers uniform. Hamels had pitched well his previous two starts in Rangers win, but was not the pitcher of record in either start.

As we headed into the final week of August the Rangers at 64-59 were only 3.5 games behind the Astros for the division lead and they were in the second wild card spot having jumped 4 teams from the beginning of the month till August 24th. They had jumped over the Twins, Angels, Orioles, and Rays to take over the second wild card spot behind the Jays/Yankees who were tied in the AL East. The Rangers were legitimately surging as we headed into their series against the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays were also on fire since the trade deadline. They had been 6 games back in the division behind the Yankees and made all of that up in just 3 and half weeks. They were not only beating teams they were embarrassing opponents. Their run differential was increasing by the game. Both teams had been among the best teams in baseball in August as they started play in Arlington. The Rangers held a late 5-4 lead as Shawn Tolleson came into the game to try to close it out. He walked 2 of the first 3 hitters. He was trying to hit the corners and was not getting the calls and the Jays were not swinging. He had two runners on with only one out with Justin Smoak coming to the plate. Smoak flew out to make it two outs. Then Tulowitzki came to the plate and hit a single to left to tie the game. Josh Donaldson then hit a soft grounder that Adrian Beltre could not field cleanly that allowed the go-ahead run to score and the Rangers lost 6-5. It was Tolleson’s 2nd blown save of the season. Derek Holland in that game was good not great, but good enough to get the win. It was his second start of the season. He was dominant in his debut allowing only 2 runs against the Mariners. He looked like the Derek Holland of old though which was going to be great for the team in the homestretch of the season. The other news from that game was that they lost Roughned Odor due to a ripped fingernail. He would not go on the DL, but would sit out the next few games as it recovered. The next night it was David Price going up against Colby Lewis. The Jays won 12-4 as they were able to take advantage of Lewis’ flyball tendencies to hit two home runs and the bullpen was not able to stop the bleeding as they allowed 7 runs of their own. After the game Jeff Bannister called the next game a must win. He said ,”To go where we want to go, we’ve got to come back and play well tomorrow. We have to have our ‘A’ game. We have to be focused tomorrow and find a way to grind one out however it goes. We can’t give another one away.” It would be Yovanni Gallardo on the mound going up against Marco Estrada. Gallardo had pitched well and won the only game in the Rangers previous series against the Jays. On this day he pitched well again. It continued a strong stretch of games in the month of August for Gallardo. This day he was able to 5.1 with no runs allowed again. Estrada also pitched really well only allowing 1 run in 6  innings. Then Liam Hendriks came in out of the bullpen and this happened.

Deshields hit a 3-run inside the park home run to extend the lead to 4-0. The Rangers were able to close it out after and win 4-1. That was a hard-fought victory that the team really needed. It was good to see bounce off the mat and get the win. From there they had a 3 game series against the Orioles and one game against the Padres to close out the month. They swept a struggling Orioles team that really played itself out of the playoffs during this stretch by losing 4 straight and 9 out of 10 to fall to 5.5 games back in the wild card and 11 games back in the AL East. The Rangers were going the opposite direction. They beat the Orioles 4-1, 4-3, and 6-0. They finished off the month by heading to San Diego to play the Padres. The final game of August though saw them lose 7-0 and be dominated by Tyson Ross.

It was still a great month that saw great play, lots of adversity, and resilence in the face of doubt. They ended up the month going 18-10. They were in the lead by a game for the 2nd wild card spot and were only 4 games back in the division. They did all this despite losing Josh Hamilton for some time, losing both Carlos Corporan and Robinson Chirinos for the entire month, losing Odor for a few games at the end of the month, Prince Fielder struggled again this month, and Colby stumbled down the stretch in August by having 2 bad starts in a row. They survived all of that because the bullpen was fantastic for most of the month, Odor was still hitting great, and the starters pitched very well. The story that I did not get to that I will write more about in September was Shin Soo Choo hit well in the first two weeks after the All Star Break. The story is not that though it is that he was able to continue that throughout August as well. He took over the 2 hole in the lineup for Bannister and never looked back. Him and Deshields were a lethal combination at the top of the order. Choo started walking more, starting making more contact, and was hitting for power. He became the player the Rangers thought they were signing back in 2014. I will write more about that tomorrow as I get in September. September is really when he took off and became the best hitter in the lineup.

Tomorrow I will be writing about the end of the regular season. The Rangers are in a 3-team race as we head into September for the division, and they are holding onto the lead in the 2nd wild card spot as well. They are in a good position. They have 7 games against the Astros in September and loads of divisional games. I will write about their chase to get the divsion and how the title was won in game 162.

Season in Review: June

Posted on by

0

Joey Gallo makes his Texas Rangers Debut on June 2nd.

Joey Gallo makes his Texas Rangers Debut on June 2nd.

May was a great month for the Rangers, but at the very end the team suffered losses off the field in losing Adrian Beltre to a thumb injury and Josh Hamilton to a hamstring injury. They were in good position in the standings, but could they remain there while these players recovered? The other question became who would replace Beltre at 3rd? Would it be Ed Lucas or Thomas Fields? Would they bring up Odor from AAA and shift Alberto to 3rd? The completely out of the box idea was to bring Joey Gallo up from AA and have him play 3rd, but the though with that was that he was not ready for MLB pitching. The Rangers started the month with an off day before continuing their homestand against the Chicago White Sox. Word started leaking out the Rangers were considering bringing up Joey Gallo. Then late Monday afternoon it became official that Rangers prospect Joey Gallo would make his long anticipated MLB debut on Tuesday night. We would be able to see if he could contribute and fill that hole left in the lineup by Beltre. Lot of debate on both sides of this, is this harming his long term development, is he ready, and the other side saying why not, it gives the lineup another power threat. Up to this point in the season that Tuesday night game was the most excited I have been about watching a Rangers game in 2015. No one knew what to expect. None of the experts, coaches, or anyone knew how he would perform. I was expecting maybe a hit and 3 strikeouts going up against Jeff Szmardija. That is not even close to what we got. I will just let the video do the talking.

He hit a home run, a double, and a single. He was magnificent and helped lead the Rangers to a 15-2 win. It was eye opening really and showed the potential that he has. As a fan I knew that he wouldn’t do that every night, but it was great to see in his debut. That went to show that the Rangers might be able to survive this stretch. It was not going to be easy and the schedule was filled with lose able games, but if the Rangers could play close to or at .500 ball for the month I thought they would be okay for the long run.

The first half of the month they played a lot better than that though. They ended up winning 2 of 3 against the White Sox, 2 of 3 against the Royals and that gave them a 7-3 homestand and I believe their first winning homestand of the season. The offense was clicking during this stretch, Prince Fielder cooled down from his red hot May, and the team as a whole was playing well. What also changed was that at the end of May Jeff Bannister instituted a no-roles bullpen meaning that he could bring in whoever he thought was best for the situation. That ended up turning back into a roles bullpen midway through June, but the new role that was most important was Shawn Tolleson had become the new closer. He took over for an ineffective Neftali Feliz, who became a setup pitcher. Feliz, the once dominant closer, still had not regained his form from 2010-2011. The velocity was not there which made the secondary pitches less effective. After a month and a half of rough outings Bannister made Tolleson the closer and never looked back. Tolleson captured that role and helped to solidify the back end of the bullpen. It allowed the Rangers to hold on to those close games that they were losing in April and May.

The team just kept rolling though despite the injuries, they did lose a series on the road to the A’s. The won the first game, but lost the next two. The bullpen blew one game and Scott Kazmir dominated them in the other. The good thing through this point was that Chi Chi Gonzalez was still pitching well. He had taken over Ross Detwiler’s spot in the rotation in late May and was living up to the hype. He had nearly made the team out of Spring Training. He was one of the last cuts, but he went down to AAA and still pitched well and so when the Rangers decided they had given Detwiler enough opportunities they decided to bring Gonzalez up and see what he could do. At this point the team was just trying to make it till guys like Martin Perez, Matt Harrison, and Derek Holland could come back. Wandy was starting to cool down by this point in this season and looked to be on his last legs, but they did not really have a great alternative. The pitcher who was throwing well was Yovanni Gallardo. This was his best month of the season and he helped to carry the Rangers through this difficult stretch. He gave up 2 earned runs the entire month of June, pitched at least 7 innings in 3 of the starts, and helped the team win 3 of his 5 starts. He was great.

The turning point of the month though was when Delino Deshields pulled up lame with a hamstring injury on June 14th. The Rangers had won the first two games against the Twins, but lost on this Sunday and lost Deshields to the DL after this injury. The Rangers at this point called Odor back up to majors. While in AAA he had hit for a .352 BA, 5 home runs, and slugged .639. He really played well and the Rangers thought he was ready. So they threw him out there and he was ready and looked like the old Roughned Odor. This Odor would help the Rangers win the next three games against the Dodgers. They won the first two at home and including a walk off win off the bat of Robinson Chirinos in the second game. Then the series shifted to Los Angeles for the next two games. They would face Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke. Joey Gallo had another one of those moments in LA against Kershaw.

He hit a monster shot off of Kershaw. Left-handers don’t normally do that against him, and left handed rookies definitely don’t do that. It was like Vin Scully said “a marble”. Just unreal and helped this team who had struggled against left-handers all season long beat perhaps the best left handed pitcher in all of baseball and win this 4 game series against the Dodgers. They did lose against Zack Greinke in the finale of the series, but even then it was only a 1-0 loss and it ended with a walk-off balk by Keone Kela. Anthony Ranaudo had started the game and pitched very well. The Rangers would then go to Chicago to face another tough lefty in Chris Sale, and while they did not do anything against Sale except for strike out 12 times, Colby Lewis kept them in the game by holding the White Sox to just one run. Then in the 9th, Mitch Moreland was brought on as a pinch hitter to face David Robertson with two runners on base and he did this.

He gave the Rangers the lead and the win. Remarkably enough the Rangers had not only survived this stretch without Beltre, Hamilton, and Deshields now, but they were winning a lot of games. They were at their high point of 6 games over .500 at 37-31, in second place in the West, and only 2.5 games behind the Astros. Things were looking really good. At this point only a matter of a week or so till Beltre and Hamilton both came back. Ryan Rua had just come back from the heel injury, and so things were looking like they might be able to catch the Astros before the All Star Break. That is normally the time when things start to take a turn south and boy did they ever for the Rangers. The injuries and all the tough pitchers that they faced took a toll on the whole team. They had been winning games for about a week or so at this point with smoke and mirrors. They were not scoring a high amount of runs, but were pitching just well enough to win games. After beating Chris Sale and the White Sox that changed. The pitching was still good, but the offense kept just scoring 2 runs, while the pitching was allowing 3. That caused them to lose the next two games in Chicago. Then the team went back home to face the A’s in a 3 game series and lost all 3 games as the pitching got a lot worse. Adrian Beltre did come back during this homestand, but it would take him while to get his timing back as he was learning to play with his injured thumb. Beltre coming back though did not help the pitching. Wandy Rodriguez started to only throw well on the road and throw up clunkers at home. The league caught up to Chi Chi and he started to not be as effective and Joey Gallo started striking out a lot more and being less effective. Hanser Alberto who had filled in a 2nd and 3rd was also not hitting and Prince Fielder had massively cooled down without Beltre in the lineup. Roughned Odor had come back and was playing great, but unfortunately no one else was. It was hard to win games. All of this would lead to the A’s sweeping them at home and then the Blue Jays took the first game of the series to end what had become a 6 game losing streak and just like that they were back at .500 and 5.0 games back in the division. Thankfully it was Yovanni Gallardo’s turn in the rotation. He would go up against the Blue Jays on that Saturday and would shut them out and help the team end that long losing streak. That was a trend this season was Gallardo pitching well against the Blue Jays. His being right handed and being able to pitch on the corners allowed him to be able to stay away from the power zones of the Blue Jays hitters. They would go on to lose the next day, but Chi Chi pitched well other than just one inning, but the offense couldn’t get enough runs to win the game. Then to end the month the Rangers went to a Baltimore and since it was on the road Wandy pitched well. He was great in this start as he pitched 5 innings, giving up 1 run, and striking out 7 and the Rangers won 8-1. Then on the final day of the month the Rangers won again 8-6 this time behind a good start from Colby Lewis and great offensive production.

The Rangers had some great highs in this month with the debut of Joey Gallo, winning 3 games against the Dodgers, and getting up as high as 2nd place in the division. They also had some lows and that was losing Deshields and then losing 6 straight and 7 of 8 at the end of the month. It was clear by the mid of June the team was running out of steam. They did get Adrian Beltre and Josh Hamilton back by the end of the month and had survived June. They finished the month with an overall record of 40-38, 5 games back in the division, and 1 game behind the Angels for second place. Overall they went 14-13 for the month, which allowed them to stay in the race through what was a difficult month of June. It was also great to see Joey Gallo finally in a Rangers uniform and he had some great and some not so great moments. Hanser Alberto proved that he could hit on this level and Roughned Odor showed that he was not a flash in the pan either. Odor would be perhaps the Rangers best player from the time he came back up through the month of July. We will continue detailing his remarkable return next week. Chi Chi Gonzalez was great in the rotation as well, but did show some holes. He had issues putting hitters away as he was not able to get swings and misses as often as he needed to.  The most important thing was that the Rangers were still in the race after this month. It could have very easily went very south with all the injuries, but Jeff Bannister and the team kept that from happening.

Next week I will come back and detail the month of July and the entire second half. July features the return of Delino Deshields, the return of Martin Perez and Matt Harrison, a 21-5 beatdown, and surprising trades that would completely turn around the fortunes of this team. May was the month that set them on the path to contending, June was about surviving, and July will be about becoming a true contender. That will be next Monday that I will write and continue with part 4 of the 2015 Season in Review.

Season in Review: May

Posted on by

0

  Today, we pick up our 2015 Season in Review by looking back at the month that changed it all for the Rangers and that is May. Prior to May 1st it looked like this was going to be another … Continue reading →

2015 Season in Review: April

Posted on by

0

Kela congratulated by teammates after escaping 7th inning jam in Oakland.

Kela congratulated by teammates after escaping 7th inning jam in Oakland.

 

The 2015 season came to an end last week for the Texas Rangers as they lost in 5 games to the Toronto Blue Jays. It was disappointing in how it ended but it doesn’t erase the good memories that were made this season. Wheras 2014 was a season on sadness, 2015 was a season of excitement and rejuvenation for the team and for the fans. Today I am kicking off a 6 part series that takes a look back at the 2015 season month-by-month. In this series we will look at the high points, low points, and turning points of each month. I feel like we can’t really move forward into the offseason and into 2016 before we look back and remember what made 2015 so great. Today we will be starting off with April.

Heading into the season there were no expectations for the season. I thought they would be lucky to finish 3rd in the division. They had not made any big offseason moves other than trade for Yovanni Gallardo and Ross Detwiler to fill out their rotation. They had picked up a guy with a famous name in the Rule V Draft, Delino Deshields Jr, and he made the team because the team did not want to lose him back to the Astros. Before Opening Day it did not look like Deshields would be anything other than a really good pinch runner. They had a rookie manager in Jeff Bannister who had been a baseball-lifer but had never gotten a chance at the big job. He was previously bench coach for Clint Hurdle in Pittsburgh. Who knew how he would handle the responsibilities and the bullpen. In Spring Training we had also learned that Yu Darvish would be out for the whole season with Tommy John surgery. Things were not looking good as the Rangers headed out of Surprise and headed to Oakland to begin the season. The Opening Day rotation looked like this: Yovanni Gallardo, Colby Lewis, Ross Detwiler, Nick Martinez, and Derek Holland. Holland missed most of Spring Training and was held back until the home opener. The bullpen was a bunch of right handed pitchers who threw hard, but didn’t have great control. The bullpen began with no left handers. The Rangers had decided against including Alex Claudio and Sam Freeman in the bullpen to begin with. They kicked off the season by splitting a 4 game series with the A’s. The highlight of that series was Keone Kela making his first MLB appearance in a tight situation in the second game and getting Marcus Semien to ground into a double play in order to preserve a 2-run lead in the 7th. It is funny to look back on now that we have seen how good Kela could be, but he wouldn’t have even been in that situation had Tanner Scheppers and Kyuji Fujikawa not been hurt. Kela, Shawn Tolleson, and Neftali Feliz were able to close out the first win of the season. Kela and Tolleson would go on as we now know to play very important roles in the bullpen. In April though Tolleson was the 8th inning guy and right hander who could also get lefties out.

They moved on from Oakland and came home for their home opener. The fans came out to pack the park for a beautiful Friday afternoon game. The plane flyover was there, the flag was extended across the field, and all the pomp and circumstance for Opening Day was brought out. Then the game started and it became a nightmare for the Rangers and the fans. Derek Holland started the game and pitched an inning, but his velocity was way down. He got through the inning, but did not come back for the second. It was later revealed that he had a shoulder strain. It was thought to just keep him out 4-6 weeks, but Holland did not make his return until mid-August. Ryan Rua, who started the season as the left-fielder, also sustained an injury. He broke his heel in that game and would be out till June. Shin Soo Choo sustained back spasms and had to be taken out of the game. Thankfully his did not require a DL trip. It was I called it at the time the worst home opener in Rangers history. As you would imagine they did lose the game 5-1, but that was not as important as who they lost. Wandy Rodriguez was brought up to replace Derek Holland in the rotation and Carlos Peguero replaced Ryan Rua as a corner outfielder. Both of these players would have their moments with the team such as Peguero in his second game with the Rangers as they finished up the home opening series with the Astros nearly had a walk off home run, but George Springer went back on the ball and slammed into the wall and stole what would have been a walk off home run. Rodriguez also was one of the Rangers better starters through the rest of April and May. He had that curveball dancing like it was 2010 and it was baffling hitters.

That was not enough to sustain the team as they only split two series and lost 5 series. The main culprit was not pitching but offense. They could not get hits with runners in scoring position(RISP), could not hit for power, and could not hit for average. Prince Fielder was hitting well over .300 for the entire month and was actually leading the league in hitting for most of the month, but everyone else was hitting at .200 or below. The team just struggled to score runs and when they had leads the bullpen could not hold the lead. The low point of the month had to be when the team was in Seattle trying to win their first series of the season. They had a 10-5 heading into the bottom of the 7th. The Mariners scored one run in the 7th, 3 runs in the 8th against Scheppers, Kela, and Feliz, and 2 runs in the 9th to win it. It was a demoralizing loss, but thankfully Nick Martinez was starting the next game. For some reason when Nick Martinez started games in April they won. The Rangers won every game Nick Martinez started in April. He was pitching well, locating his fastball on the corners, and the team was scoring runs for him. Looking back on it this season could have went farther south than it did, but guys like Nick Martinez and Wandy Rodriguez helped to stabilize the rotation for the first couple of months. It was not sustainable for an entire season, but without their performances in April and May they would have stood no shot at contending in September. In April though the team was just looking for a spark offensively. It happened near the end of the month in an extra inning game in Anaheim.

Leonys Martin hit a go ahead home run in Anaheim to help the Rangers walk out with a win. The Rangers had lost 5 out of 6 prior to that were not looking good. Martin hit that home run and helped to right the ship. Unfortunately they would go on to lose the next three against the Mariners, but it looked like the team was right on the verge of breaking out. The pitching was still really good, they were holding opponents down, the bullpen was pitching somewhat better, but they just needed to score runs. At the end of the month a surprising trade was announced that sent Josh Hamilton back home to Texas. Anaheim was ready to get rid of him after his shoulder surgery and his tumultuous offseason that saw him fail a drug test. MLB could not suspend him though is what an arbitrator ruled, but the Angels did not want him in Spring Training or on the team. Texas facilitated a trade that allowed Hamilton to come back to Texas and for Anaheim to pay a large majority of the remainder of his contract. The team was excited to see what Josh could bring. They needed to figure themselves out first before Josh came in. By the end of April there were signs that it was getting better, but they kept losing games. It was hard to see the progress.

The month of April ended with the record standing at 7-14 and they were 7.5 games behind the first place Houston Astros. Houston ran off to a surprising 15-7 start that saw them tied with defending AL Champion Royals for best record in the AL. The Rangers weren’t winning games but they had not given up hope. They looked at their team and saw a good starting rotation, a bullpen that needed work, and an offense that was ready to break out and start scoring loads of runs. All of that would not matter if they could not start winning games. Tomorrow we will look at the month that turned it around for the Rangers and that is May. That is when the fortunes of the team turned.