What is the story about?
Rangers
7, Astros 3
- I’m having flashbacks to the series opener against the Angels on Tuesday.
- In that game, the Rangers were tied at 3 heading into the bottom of the eighth, and then scored five runs, with a three run homer by Alejandro Osuna capping off the scoring.
- In this game, the Ranges were tied at 3 heading into the bottom of the eighth, and then scored four runs, with a three run homer by Jake Burger capping off the scoring.
- In the opener against the Angels, Chris Martin gave up a run late, Cole Winn had a scoreless appearance, and Tyler Alexander pitched the ninth.
- In this game, Chris Martin gave up two runs late, Cole Winn had a scoreless appearance, and Tyler Alexander pitched the ninth.
- A big “attaboy” for Cal Quantrill, who is doing solid work filling in for Jack Leiter in the rotation. Quantrill gave up a single run, on a Yordan Alvarez home run, in six innings of work.
- Quantrill isn’t striking out a bunch of guys — he had just one K on Friday. He isn’t missing a ton of bats — he generated just two swings and misses against the Astros out of 79 pitches, which is a remarkably low rate of bat missing.
- But somehow he’s managed to get guys out and keep the Rangers in games.
- Jordan Montgomery’s return isn’t far off — it looks like he should be back by the end of the month — and at that point, if everyone is healthy (big ol’ if, I know), Quantrill goes back to the pen. Hopefully he can give the Rangers another start or two like this before he goes back to the long relief role.
- With a bullpen that was without Jacob Latz, who had thrown 41 pitches the night before, Skip Schumaker turned to Chris Martin for the seventh inning. Martin allowed a bloop single by LaMonte Wade, Jr., an extremely hard hit line drive right to Evan Carter for an out by Cam Smith, and then a crushed home run down the left field line by Yainer Diaz to tie the game. After a routine fly out, Martin was pulled for Cole Winn, who ended up retiring all four batters he faced in the game.
- Martin’s ERA is now up to 8.31 on the season. He has a 7.40 xERA and 6.57 FIP. Fortunately, this has been in only 13 innings over 15 games, because Martin has had a couple of stints on the injured list.
- The Rangers could really use Good Chris Martin, given the raggedy nature of the current bullpen. That version of Chris Martin may not be coming back, though. Martin, I imagine, is going to get some more rope, if only because there aren’t any real viable options to replace him right now. But the trade deadline is looming, the Rangers will likely be shopping for relievers if they stay in the playoff hunt, and Martin’s roster spot will be danger if he doesn’t turn things around, quick.
- Fortunately, the Rangers beat up on Astros reliever Bryan King, allowing us not to dwell on the Chris Martin situation.
- King came into the game with a 2.03 ERA in 38 appearances on the season. He had a nine game scoreless streak going, and had allowed just one run since Joc Pederson homered off of him on May 27 in some lefty-on-lefty violence.
- The Rangers blew his ERA all the way up to 2.85, thanks to Wyatt Langford leading off the inning against him with a home run, and Jake Burger hitting a three run homer later in the inning.
- That’s 15 home runs in 8 games this month for the Rangers.
- I like it when the Rangers hit home runs.
- I also like it when Wyatt Langford is healthy. He’s now slashing .276/.324/.506 on the season, with a 1.9 bWAR in just 42 games played. That’s an MVP caliber level of performance if its done over a full season.
- Cal Quantrill hit 95.8 mph with his sinker, averaging 94.4 mph. Chris Martin’s fastball hit 94.8 mph. Cole Winn reached 96.2 mph with his fastball. Tyler Alexander’s fastball topped out at 91.6 mph.
- Wyatt Langford’s homer was 108.6 mph. Joc Pederson’s home run was 107.7 mph. Brandon Nimmo had a 105.2 mph double. Josh Jung had a 104.4 mph single. Jake Burger’s home run was 101.0 mph.
- Two games to go before the All Star Break.
