Seven Day Snapshot of the Rangers

Seven games in seven days to start the Ranger season. If I wanted to resort to an easy pun I could say that seven days makes one weak, but I won’t go there. After a four game series to open, they hit the road to travel to Great American Ball Park for a quick three games with the Reds.

I previously wrote about witnessing the opening day loss, but I haven’t commented on the rest of the Boston series. As you know, Texas managed to win the next three. So the only game that I saw in person was the only loss. If you could guarantee that the Rangers win 3 out of every 4 and I had to witness the loss, I would have to take it for the team! Then they went to Cincinnati and lost by two touchdowns to a field goal. Ouch. So what did they do next? Won two 1-0 games! So they lost by 3, won by 3, won two by one run, got clobbered , then won two more by one. It adds up to a 5-2 record. The only other team in the American League that has won five games plays in a foreign country.

Let’s look at some numbers. After a week, the team only has 7 homers, none by Seager,Semien,or Jung. RBI leaders? Garcia 4,Burger 3,Langford 2 - no-one else has more than one. Hits? Langford 7,Garcia 5,Heim 4 - no-one else more than 3! They have struck out 44 times and only drawn 16 walks. Wyatt Langford is batting .269 and Adolis Garcia is at .227. No-one else is over .158. Would you agree that the offense has gotten off to a poor start?

So how have the Rangers won 5 games? Good defense and great pitching. The team ERA is 2.90, led by rookie Jack Leiter at .90 and Nathan Eovaldi”s 1.20. The bullpen has been outstanding. The staff has 68 strikeouts, trailing only the (undefeated) Dodgers and Padres. Texas has only given up 25 runs, and 14 came in one game. That leaves 11 runs allowed in 5 games. That will work.

I obviously don’t think these trends will continue based on one week’s action. The pitching can’t continue to be that good. Can it? The offense will come alive. Won’t it? So far, Texas has made the right plays and future Hall of Famer Bruce Bochy has pushed the right buttons. It has been an entertaining week. I leave you with a fun fact. In the long proud history of the Texas Rangers, they have never won back to back games 1-0. Until today.

That’s one man’s opinion - what’s yours?