Texas Forever: Rangers complete second-half surge, clinch playoff berth
March 5. That was the date the Texas Rangers season died. Ace Yu Darvish left his first spring start with arm tightness. A few days later, it was announced Darvish would miss the season due to Tommy John surgery. All but the biggest diehard Rangers’ fans gave up on 2015 at that point.
Flash forward to October 1, and the Rangers are heading to the postseason. The club managed the feat against the Los Angeles Angels, winning 5-3. With one more win, the team will claim the American League West, shocking fans who left them fro dead back in March.
In fairness, who could blame them? Davish was the one certainty on an otherwise uneasy pitching staff. On top of that, the team’s best hitter was attempting to come back from major neck surgery, and the club’s star third baseman was going to be 36 years old. Oh, and remember that top overall prospect who missed all of 2014 due to an injury? He was going to miss 2015 as well.
Was it possible to contend? Sure. Was it likely? Nope.
Yet, despite all odds, the Rangers hung in there. Considering all that they dealt with early, it’s tough to say exactly how they remained in the race for a playoff spot.
Derek Holland went down shortly after the regular season began, thinning an already dangerously weak staff. On May 31, Adrian Beltre, the old third baseman, went on the disabled list due to a thumb injury. At that point, the only standout at the plate was Prince Fielder.
On that day, Fielder was hitting an incredible .359/.412/.563. Shin-Soo Choo, on the other hand, was hitting just .236/.323/.425. Rougned Odor was already back in the minors after looking severely overmatched at the plate.
Despite all of that, the Rangers were somehow 26-25 on May 31. June brought more of the same. Though Beltre missed most of the month, the team still managed to go 14-13.
Hope came in July. The team had one of their worst months, going just 10-14, but acquired Cole Hamels and Jake Diekman from the Philadelphia Phillies. Reliever Sam Dyson also came over from the Miami Marlins.
Hamels was the big name, and has pitched to expectations in Texas, posting a 3.86 ERA over 74 2/3 innings. While Dyson and Diekman were lesser known guys, both have really helped the pen down the stretch. Diekman’s posted a 2.18 ERA since joining the club. Dyson has a 1.27 over the same time frame.
On top of that, almost every one of the Rangers’ bats came alive around the trade deadline. Since August 1, Choo has hit .342/.463/.538. Odor turned into an All-Star once he was recalled, hitting .299/.343/.536. Beltre shook off his early season rust, as well, hitting .298/.349/.465 since returning from his injury.
Combine that with the return of Holland and Martin Perez, and Fielder’s continued resurgence, and, suddenly, the Rangers’ second half surge makes sense.
The team exploded to go 18-10 in August, and matched that record in September. The team’s pivotal series came during the middle of that month. The Rangers swept the Astros in a four-game set, finally grabbing first place in the division. They didn’t let up, leading to the team’s first playoff appearance since 2012.
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Because they haven’t been at the top all that long, the Rangers will enter the postseason with plenty of questions. But after overcoming injuries and treading water in the first-half, this club has become extremely dangerous over the past few months.
Whether that extends once the postseason begins remains to be seen. What is clear is that the Rangers are not longer that first-half club. So many wrote them off once Darvish went down, and they persevered. It would be foolish to do that again.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
