DALLAS — It was a really fun week to be a Texas Rangers fan. That rhythm I was talking about a few weeks back, where every facet of the game worked off each other? The offense picked up the pitching, the pitching picked up the offense, the bullpen picked up the starters, the starters picked up the defense and all of it functioned like a well oiled machine.
Texas carried over from the last two wins in the Colorado series to win a total of seven in a row. Does it help to face teams that are below .500? Sure, playing bad teams can make your team look like world beaters.
There are two things to keep in mind, though: 1) Texas hasn't exactly beaten the pants off of teams with losing records this season, and 2) Texas is a bad team itself. What does that mean? The same thing it does for the season as a whole – enjoy the wins when they come. Wins feel good.
June 18-24
- Opponents: @ Kansas City Royals, @ Minnesota Twins
- Six-game Record: 5-1
- Overall Record: 34-45, 18.0 Games Back of Houston
- Injury Report: Doug Fister (60, strained knee), Matt Bush (10, right elbow strain), Carlos Perez (10, right ankle sprain), Martin Perez (60, right elbow discomfort)
- Notable Stats: Shin-Soo Choo – 37 Game On-Base Streak (still going), 8-Game Hitting Streak, .280/.393/.481 overall; Delino DeShields - 15 Game On-Base Streak (snapped Sunday); Bullpen – 3 runs in 15 innings; Offense with Runners in Scoring Position During Stretch – 16-for-53 (.302), Offensive Walks (287, 1st in AL), Offensive Strikeouts (739, 1st in AL), Walks Allowed (227, 5th in AL), Strikeouts (563, 13th in AL)
On the Mound
I’m sure you all knew this, but this rotation for Texas doesn't exactly scream “contender.” For this week, though, the rotation was far from the lowlight we’ve known it to be this season. Just as the previous week’s losing streak started with the rotation, this week’s winning streak starts the same way.
The “worst” start during this stretch was from Yovani Gallardo, who gave up four runs in Saturday’s match with the Twins, but those were on two, two-run homers that bookended an otherwise solid start from the veteran.
In total, the starters gave up just 13 runs in the six games this past week. When your starters are giving up an average of just a little over two runs per game, you always stand a good chance to win. We saw Mike Minor turn in his best effort, with six innings of one run ball.
Austin Bibens-Dirkx, coming up to replace the severely demoted Yohander Mendez, went 6 2/3 innings while giving up just one run. Cole Hamels? His increasingly standard one run. Bartolo Colon gave up three runs in his start on Monday and just two in the finale of the road trip on Sunday.
Likewise, the bullpen continued its streak of dominance, showcasing its collection of arms ahead of the trade deadline. In fact, the only runs given up by the bullpen were a solo home run from Jake Diekman against Kansas City and a couple of inherited runners that scored off of Keone Kela, showing up on Matt Moore’s ledger.
As we finish out June and start getting into the rumor mill that is July and the trade deadline, the most popular names we’re looking to hear mentioned will be Keone Kela and Jake Diekman. Kela has been exceptional. He’s been a perfect 18-for-18 in save opportunities and the inflated 3.67 ERA comes from two very bad outings towards the start of the year.
Since May 1, when Kela gave up a two-out grand slam in a game the Rangers eventually won against Cleveland, the Rangers’ closer has been extraordinary. Sporting a 2.12 ERA in that time, with opponents hitting just .125 off of him with 20 strikeouts to seven walks, Kela, despite his injury history, seems to have found his niche in the highest of high leverage spots.
Similarly, Jake Diekman, who has been through this trade season before in coming to Texas, is certain to attract his share of attention. The lefty, in his first full season removed from colon removal surgery, has posted a 2.96 ERA in 27.1 innings with 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings.
Diekman might raise some questions, due to the aforementioned surgery, but with a clean bill of health, the 31-year old should be a nice under-the-radar acquisition for a contending team.
At the Plate
Again, facing bad teams with bad pitching can make your offense look incredible, but the Texas bats had it going on over this road trip. With a nice combination of the long ball, situational and timely hitting, the Rangers scored 30 runs in the last six games.
The fun had to come to an end and on Sunday, the Rangers were shut down by the impressive Jose Berrios. You’ll just tip your cap to some good pitching. The most impressive showing for the bats came on Friday in the second game against Minnesota. Homers from Robinson Chirinos and Adrian Beltre, with a couple of RBI knocks from Shin-Soo Choo, Nomar Mazara and Delino DeShields made for a nice nine run afternoon.
The only player who might not have had such a great time in that game was Jurickson Profar, who was drilled three times in the winning affair, the last coming as retaliation for a fourth inning stolen base.
Joey Gallo continues to struggle. In this road trip, Gallo logged just one hit, struck out five times, walked three (in one game), and also had an early exit on Saturday with a barking hamstring. Strikeouts come with the territory with Gallo, and every single team knows that.
Even with the pace he’s on (111 before the official halfway point), the potential of something more is there. When looking at trading a piece like Gallo or Mazara, or even Profar, perception is the biggest tool a general manager can use. Consider first that Gallo is still just 24 years old. He has a track record of improving at the plate after each year he makes a transition – last year was his first full year in the Majors and he acquitted himself well.
This year is his first year of total certainty in the lineup and that brings promise of adjusting and performing next year. He’s not arbitration eligible for another two seasons and won’t be a free agent until the end of 2023. That’s a lot of asset to have in Joey Gallo. Texas will be asking high on him, and they have every right to. But Jon Daniels is going to need Gallo to play a lot better than he did this week if he wants to get max value for him.
In the Field
We continue to see impressive defense in center field from Delino DeShields and, while he’s not up there as an “elite” center fielder yet, he’s making quick strides to make himself a household name. As we look to the trade deadline, DeShields might not be a marquee name to consider, but he could be one of those nice supplemental pieces for a fringe team, such as the Cardinals, Giants or Diamondbacks (who incidentally have two left fielders and two right fielders listed on their MLB.com active roster). By the same token, I’ve brought up the idea of extending DeShields in the past and JD could see him as a building block for the future.
Texas only committed three errors over this road trip and nothing proved to be too consequential as the team ended up with wins in the long run. Isiah Kiner-Falefa is truly becoming the best utility player the Rangers could hope to use, as his skills as a catcher were rapidly tested during this stretch and he acquitted himself well behind the plate.
It could have been easy for Texas to keep Jose Trevino up to backup Chirinos – Trevino, after all, is a true catcher, but the anomaly hybrid that is Kiner-Falefa seems to already be developing a good rapport with the pitching staff and can still bounce across the dirt without letting the moves affect his offensive production. Is he a surprise? Not to those that have been following him, but Kiner-Falefa continues to show that he is an asset on this team.
Nobody is untouchable in this trade deadline – not promising future pieces like Joey Gallo and Nomar Mazara, nor veteran presences Adrian Beltre and Shin-Soo Choo. Some may be harder to trade because of contract money, some may be easy to trade based on potential, but you can bet that the team that just won seven in a row and gave us a really good stretch of baseball isn’t going to be the same team at this time next month.
Up Next:
- June 25-27: San Diego Padres
- June 29-July 1: Chicago White Sox
Who do you think has the most trade value on the Rangers? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
