![]() Picked up from Philadelphia, Eflin has experience in going the long road through the Wild Card to get to the World Series, so the size of the stage will not worry him in the slightest. Scoring runs is something that the Rays bats can handle, but through the regular season, they finished second to the Texas Rangers in total offense, so they need to concentrate on shutting those Ranger bats down. Tampa Bay will call on Zach Eflin to get them back into this race. The Rangers and Eovaldi might be willing to push the boat out a little for the World Series or even the Championship Series, but at this early stage it is safe to say that the Rangers will be looking to manage a bullpen game tonight. Movement not quite as nasty, speed not quite as spicy. ![]() More importantly, however, his stuff seemed to lose a little bit in the process. Since returning, the Rangers have made light work of him, keeping him on a strict pitch count. Throwing hard with funky movement and able to go deep into a game, notching up a couple of complete games in May and June.Īnd then that old bugbear forearm tightness, the harbinger of Tommy John everywhere, reared it’s ugly head and Eovaldi went onto the injured list. He was lights out, in every possible way. Pre All Star break, Nathan Eovaldi looked like a shoo-in for the Cy Young Award. Now, as they head to Baltimore to face the Orioles in the ALDS, the question is, which of these two Rangers teams will show up? The Rangers showed out in Tampa and showed the world that when they show up, there is no team in baseball that can stop them. Looking dazed and confused for most of the last two days, the Rays have a feeling of a team happy to see the end of the season.Īfter Game 1, Jonah Heim stated the team ethos for the press, saying that the focus for the Rangers has always been "Gotta get here. Their errors cost them game one and their lack of production with the bat game two. The Rays had a stinker of a Wild Card series, looking more like a 99 loss team than a 99 win one. They did that tonight, scoring seven runs on twelve hits. Bruce Bochy said after the series loss to Seattle that ended the season, that he was not happy with the way the Rangers were “home run or bust” and that they needed to “use all of the field” with their bats. Nathan Eovaldi found his form, throwing 6.2 outstanding innings, surrendering only six hits and one run with eight strikeouts.īut the key to the win was the Ranger bats finally came alive. Going into Tropicana Field, the toughest baseball field to visit, and sweeping the Rays sees the Rangers of old come back into focus. The back end of September saw an inconsistent Rangers team who showed flashes of their early-season dominance, but in bursts that were unsustainable.Īll of the stars seemed to align for Bruce Bochy and the boys today. They finished the season as the third-highest scoring team, behind the Braves and the Dodgers. And then, just as their pitching suffered setbacks, their bats went cold as well. Texas also had the most prolific offense in MLB through August, outscoring every other team with ease. Kept to a strict pitch count and basically a shadow of his former self. Injury plagued him and he has been middling at best since his return. He was the only serious name in the Cy Young conversation through July.Īnd then he fell off. He leapt off the starting blocks, putting together masterful performance after masterful performance, throwing complete games and shutouts galore. ![]() Nathan Eovaldi was the poster boy for this Rangers season. Their fall was prodigious, and much-celebrated by AL West and in-state rivals Houston, who pipped the Rangers at the post for the division title. They don’t call them “the dog days of summer” for nothing. ![]() Fatigue, both in pitching arms and just generally, dogged the Rangers through late August and September. Their offense was unstoppable, their pitching unhittable. The Rangers decide to show up and show outįor so much of the 2023 season, the Texas Rangers were unbeatable.
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