Rangers 'Turning Point': Starting Pitching Has Turned Tide From 2-9 Start
Since the Texas Rangers got off to that dreadful 2-9 start in their first 11 games, the club has gone 6-5 in the next 11. It's no accident that the team's overall performance has revolved around how the starting rotation has produced on the mound.
Ironically, this turnaround came on a night where the starting pitching was dreadful. Taylor Hearn made his first start in Seattle since his well-documented Major League debut, and it looked like it was going to go even worse than that night in April 2019.
But Hearn righted the ship after a five-run first inning and muscled his way through two scoreless innings to preserve as much of the bullpen as possible. After the offense had led a huge comeback, which ended with an 8-6 victory, Hearn chatted with fellow starter Jon Gray in the late stages of the game and predicted the tide was about to turn.
"I told him, 'I really feel like when we win this game, it's going to be a turning point for us,'" Hearn explained. "Everything started coming together, especially on the pitching side. Everybody just stayed the course."
Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports
Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Gray displayed the same confidence two nights prior when he lost his outing and subsequently made a second trip to the 10-day Injured List.
"I don't want our team to get down," Gray said after the game. "Things are going to get better for us. I know how good our team is. I'm not worried at all. I'm not worried one bit. We're really good. And that's going to show before too long."
Since that "turning point," the Rangers starting rotation has kicked it up a notch with a collective 2.77 ERA over the past 11 games. That mark is tied for sixth in all of baseball during that span. Prior to that, the rotation put up a 7.51 ERA, which was the second-worst in Major League Baseball.
Among those starts have been two sensational starts by Martín Pérez, including his flirt with perfection in Thursday's loss to Houston. Dane Dunning also became the first Rangers starter to pitch into the eighth inning this season, going 7 2/3 innings with just one run allowed on four hits with no walks and seven strikeouts.
Now that we are passed the point where pitchers were building up toward a full workload, manager Chris Woodward has given his starters a much longer leash to go deeper into games. It's no accident that this promise has coincided with improved performance.
"I made a promise to those guys," Woodward said after Dunning's outing on Saturday. "I said, 'Hey, we've done our part for the first month to hopefully protect you'; hopefully get ahead of some things proactively to keep them safe. Now the leash is off."
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports
The Rangers bullpen has drastically improved over this span as well. Since April 22, Texas relievers have a 2.23 ERA, which is fourth in MLB. As starters go deeper into games, it takes pressure off the bullpen. This will be most crucial from here on out since all MLB clubs had to reduce active rosters from 28 players to 26 on Monday.
For the Rangers, that roster cut included optioning Spencer Howard and Kolby Allard to Triple-A Round Rock to be built up for longer outings.
Gray is set to return from the IL and make his third start of the season on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. He'll look to bounce back after a couple volatile starts, perfectly epitomized by his 7.00 ERA and 1.00 WHIP. It might be the last start we see a Rangers pitcher with any kind of true limit since both of his starts have followed with a trip to the IL.
But as the pitching staff continues to pitch without handcuffs, it could help support an offense looking to get out of a collective funk. Perhaps Sunday's 7-3 victory over the Atlanta Braves is the beginning of that effort. And there's no better place to test a team's mettle than on the road.
