Cole Hamels pitches the Rangers to the AL West Championship

At no point in April through July did I have any idea that I would be writing that headline. The Rangers started off the season 8-16 and were already 8 games back of the Astros by the end of the April. They lost every game of a series in that month and did not even win a home series until the last day of May. Nick Martinez was their best starter in April and can’t even get on the field now in September. Wandy Rodriguez was mowing people with that curveball and now pitches for the Kansas City Royals. Kyle Blanks was getting important hits in the 3 weeks he was healthy. Tanner Scheppers and Neftali Feliz were your 8th and 9th inning relievers. When I type that out it feels like that was a whole different season. Yet it was not and even though the team played well in May, the bottom dropped out from mid-June to mid-July.

They stood at 8 games back when they made the trade for Cole Hamels. That was the turning point of the season was that week. That was the week that they lost 21-5 to the Yankees. I just remember thinking the team can go one of two directions after that game. They can continue playing like garbage and play out the string or they can try to turn it around and get back into contention. They picked the latter. They came back to win the next two games against the Yankees and get an improbable split. Then they made the blockbuster trade for Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman. Then in the last 30 minutes before the deadline they picked up Sam Dyson for Tomas Telis. That transformed their bullpen from a liability to a strength and allowed them to be able to hold on to these games that they were blowing. Then in August when they started to play well Jon Daniels did it again bringing back fan favorite and right-handed bat Mike Napoli. That strengthened their lineup against LHP. They still stood 8 games back and with just a 10% chance according to Baseball Prospectus (BP) to win the division. The sweep of that series is really when the team started to believe and when the organization started to believe that they might have a chance at this.  The sweep kept them alive in the wild card chase but also they picked up 3 games on the Astros to get to within 5 I believe. They were still behind the Angels, but they were getting much closer to them as well.

The team kept playing well from August through much of September and the Astros just kept creeping back to the pack. I began to look at the schedule and thought that if they were going to move into first place it would likely be during that 10 game homestand and the 4 game series with the Astros. Sure enough they did when Mitch Moreland hit the go ahead sac fly to score Drew Stubbs that allowed them move into 1st place. I have to say though that they gave me plenty of pause about their ability to finish it off this week. I thought they would do it Friday, but Jeff Weaver and his 84 mph fastball and his 67 mph curveball were just too much for the Rangers. They just could not slow down their bats enough to be able to get solid wood on the ball. It was as if they were facing a right handed Jamie Moyer. Then I thought for sure they could hold a 4 run 9th inning lead, but nope that was not meant to be either. Yesterday though seeing Cole Hamels pitch like he did shows why Jon Daniels went out and got him. He put up one of the best pitching performances in Rangers history. The other ones that I can think of are Nolan Ryan’s two no-hitters, Kenny Rogers perfect game against the Angels, Cliff Lee in game 5 of the ALDS and game 2 of the ALCS, Derek Holland in game 4 of the World Series, Yu Darvish nearly pitching a perfect game against the Astros in his first start in 2013, and now we have the Cole Hamels complete game in game 162 to clinch the division. Feel free to rank those in your mind however you would like, but Hamels’ game belongs up there. The bullpen was fried from being used so much this week and needed at least 8 and preferrably 9 innings from him and that is what he gave them. The Angels last 26 hitters were 0-23, with two walks and a HBP of Mike Trout. He was masterful in keeping his pitch count down and just getting outs. That is why Jon Daniels brought him here is for games like these and for the postseason games that will follow. In 2010 and 2011 the division was so down that there was not much of a race either year. This year though it was a true 3 team race all the way till the end. Thankfully the Rangers came out on top.

Now they take their talents to Toronto to face the surging Blue Jays. Will they win that series? Who knows. It will be a difficult series, the Blue Jays bring in a great offense, but only have decent pitching. The Jays bullpen is vulnerable. The Rangers must keep it close through the early innings and be stubborn at the plate and try to get to that bullpen early. The pitching strategy has to be to keep the ball low. The Jays will crush anything that is left up. I imagine the rotation will be Lewis, Hamels, Gallardo, and Holland. The Blue Jays do not fare as well against right handers but absolutely crush left-handers. The Jays are the favorite to win this series, the analysts I imagine will be picking this series to go 3 or 4 games tops with the Blue Jays winning it. The Rangers are there though and anything can happen once we start playing the games. The thing I like is the Rangers experience in the playoffs. On the Blue Jays Mark Buerhle, David Price, Troy Tulowitzki, and Russell Martin have previous playoff experience. Buehrle, Price, and Tulo have all played in a World Series. For the Rangers Mike Napoli, Mitch Moreland, Prince Fielder, Adrian Beltre, Elvis Andrus, Cole Hamels, Derek Holland, Yovani Gallardo, Colby Lewis, and Josh Hamilton. Of those players Napoli, Moreland, Andrus, Hamels, Holland, Lewis, and Hamilton have played in multiple World Series. The Rangers bring in vast experience in playoff series and I like to think about this, but the Rangers have not lost an AL Playoff series since 1999. Sure they were not even in the playoffs from 2000-2009, but they won both the ALDS and ALCS in 2010 and 2011. They have that going for them too. The Rangers are there though and not alot of people thought we would be saying that. I think my preseason prediction was that they would finish 3rd in the division behind the Angels and Mariners and finish right around 82-84 wins. They outplayed my expectations though and I could not be happier. This has been one of my favorite seasons to follow the Rangers and I really hope it does not end anytime soon. The AL is wide open and if they can get past the Blue Jays the Royals and whoever wins the wild card game is very beatable. Anything can happen in October. We shall see. Game 1 is Thursday with the time of the game to be announced soon.