Rangers overtake Astros for first in AL West
Take a moment to survey the AL West standings, current as of Tuesday night …
Yes, the Rangers are in first place. Yes, the Rangers, who haven’t gotten an inning from Yu Darvish and who lost 95 games a season ago, are atop their division. In fact, they’re in first place for the first time since April 11 and in sole possession of first place for the first time since April 23, 2014.
They summited by virtue of their walk-off win over the erstwhile first-place Astros on Tuesday night (TEX 6, HOU 5). Here’s the deciding sequence …
While the Rangers this season have struggled against the Athletics, Angels, and Mariners (they’re 17-30 against those three teams), they’ve pretty well lorded over the Astros on head-to-head basis. After Tuesday night’s hotly fought victory, the Rangers are now 10-4 against their Lone Star State label-mates this season. That’s helped them make a pretty remarkable stretch-drive run. After all, as recently as Aug. 2 the Rangers were 8.0 games out and in third place in the AL West.
Since that near-low point, though, the Rangers have gone 26-14, and that’s coincided with some inconsistent play by Houston (the Astros haven’t won two in a row since Aug. 26). So what’s changed? It hasn’t been the offense, in general terms. From the start of the regular season through Aug. 2, the Rangers batted .252/.317/.406 as a team. Since that point, they’ve hit a very similar .255/.327/.404.
It follows, then, that the pitching-and-defense side of things has improved, at least in terms of outcomes. Through Aug. 2, the Rangers allowed 4.8 runs per game. Since that point, they’ve allowed 3.9 runs per game. Suffice it to say, that’s a significant difference.
We’re talking about a short-run improvement, so there’s surely some fortunate sequencing involved, but we’re also talking about a span in which the Rangers’ rotation has improved substantially. Chiefly, that’s been because they acquired Cole Hamels just prior to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline and Derek Holland (Tuesday’s starter) returned from a stubborn shoulder strain to make his second start of the season on Aug. 19.
As is always the case when a team adds good players to the mix, it’s not just the value those players add. It’s also the — generally speaking — sub-optimal stop-gaps they crowd out. The Rangers added two mid- to front-line guys, who in turn forced out a pair of replacement-level sorts.
Consider that in July, the Rangers’ run-prevention abilities seems to reach a nadir, as they surrendered a whopping 153 runs for the month — and bear in mind that’s a month that included the All-Star break. That came to 6.4 runs allowed per game. Those kinds of struggles are never reducible to any one thing, as the rotation, bullpen, defense, blind luck, ballparks, and quality of opposition all play a role. In the Rangers’ instance, though, consider how their starts were apportioned for that month of July …
Yovani Gallardo, 6 starts
Colby Lewis, 5 starts
Nick Martinez, 4 starts
Matt Harrison, 3 starts
Martin Perez, 3 starts
Wandy Rodriguez, 2 starts
Chi Chi Gonzalez, 1 start
That’s 24 games and seven starters, or, if you prefer, one more starter than the 2012 Reds used all season. That’s also nine starts given the pitchers who didn’t last in the Texas rotation very long.
And now consider who’s made starts since Aug 1., when, roughly, the Rangers began whittling away at the Astros’ lead …
Yovani Gallardo, 8
Cole Hamels, 8
Colby Lewis, 8
Martin Perez, 7
Derek Holland, 6
Chi Chi Gonzalez, 3
Nick Martinez, 2
This is what the Rangers are capable of right now: giving 30 of 42 starts to the worthy likes of Hamels, Holland, Gallardo, and Lewis. It’s little surprise, then, that the opposition is having a harder time putting runs on the board lately.
To be sure, the schedule has played a bit of a role, as the Rangers since Aug. 1 have played 26 out of 42 games against losing teams. Prior to that, the Rangers had played the comfortable majority of their games against winning teams.
To a meaningful extent, though, the Rangers are where they are right now — i.e., first place — because two lefties made their way to the once-flawed rotation at just the right time. Barring the unexpected, they’re not going anywhere. Maybe the Rangers aren’t, either.
Derek Holland has helped the Rangers’ rotation take a step forward. (USATSI)
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