Jim Cowsert-USA TODAY Sports
Coincidence? Rangers Offense Explodes As Spin Rates Plummet Throughout MLB
ARLINGTON, Texas — It's no secret that the Texas Rangers have had a trying season to say the least. After an 18-18 start, the team went an abysmal 7-28, ending all hope fans might have clung to that this team could overachieve in 2021.
But since then — since Major League Baseball began its crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances — the Rangers have won five of their last seven games. And Sunday's 4-1 win over the Kansas City Royals capped off the Rangers' second sweep of the season.
During this seven-game stretch, the Rangers' offense has exploded and scored 20 runs in four games against the Oakland A's and 21 more in the three games against Kansas City.
Since umpires began inspecting pitchers all throughout the league, spin rates have significantly dropped. Prior to the crackdown, the average four-seam fastball was 2,318 rpm. Heading into Sunday's slate of games, the average four-seamer dropped to 2,143 rpm.
The Rangers, even at their best this season, don't boast a lineup that strikes fear into a lot of pitchers. But since pitchers have been forced to quit using anything other than sweat or rosin, the Rangers rank near the top of the league in a number of offensive categories.
That begs the question: Is this just a coincidence?
"I think it's a real thing," Rangers manager Chris Woodward said prior to Sunday's win. "I figured offenses would go up, which they have. It just shows how good stuff became. I'm not saying that was the reason. Maybe it's a lack of anything that's causing [the decline in spin rate]. ... But does it correlate? Absolutely. And I think there's a little bit of confidence that it's drawn."
Nate Lowe is one of a few Rangers who are beginning to turn a corner, slashing .375/.474/.563/1.036 with a home run and four RBI in eight of his last nine games. But no one — maybe even in all of baseball — is as hot as Joey Gallo is right now. On Sunday, he clobbered his 16th home run of the season and added another walk to his league-leading total, along with his second intentional walk of the season.
Pitchers have been trying to rid themselves of the "sticky stuff" even before MLB's crackdown officially began, and Joey Gallo — coincidentally or not — has torn up in the month of June. This month, he is slashing .246/.429/.565/.994 with seven home runs and 15 RBI. His 22 walks compared to 23 strikeouts this month is also a much better ratio than his career average of almost 2.5 strikeouts per walk.
The Rangers thought Joey Gallo might greatly benefit from the league stepping in and forcing pitchers to stop using not only egregious substances, but even things like a sunscreen and rosin mix. And, to be fair, seven games is a very small sample size. Nevertheless, Gallo and the Rangers offense have found the perfect time to start figuring things out. And with the way the Texas lineup is producing runs, it's worth keeping an eye on to see if the Rangers were falling victim to the "sticky stuff" or if this stretch is just a happy coincidence.
"When you have confidence in this game, you have conviction and you tend to do better," Woodward said. "And we had some guys making some adjustments that kind of came to light during this time. So I think it's a little bit more of a perfect storm of events that allowed us to have more success."
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