Rangers Weekly Recap: The One with the Worst Series and the Best?

What a dang week for the Rangers.

They on the losing end of a four game sweep by the Athletics in a very terrible series that the Rangers could’ve and really should have at least split. Then they had to Houston where their future looks very bad and they hand the Astros their first sweep of the season.

Oh. And they traded Cole Hamels. Delino DeShields was sent down and then brought back up. Carlos Tocci and Ryan Rua pitched in the same game and were the only Rangers pitchers to not give up any runs in that game.

All in one week.

So lets recap the bad stuff first, get that out of the way so we can get to the fun stuff, shall we?

Game one against the Athletics on Monday was Hamels’ last start for the Rangers and he gave up a grand slam to Jonathon Lucroy, and the Rangers lost 15-3. Carlos Tocci pitched 0.2 innings and he game in with runners on base in the 8th. That’s how bad this game got. They brought in a position player to pitch with runners on. Then Rua came in for the ninth inning and even recorded a strikeout. Neither of them gave up a run or a hit.

Game two should’ve been a win for the Rangers. They had a 10-2 lead going into the seventh, in large part to Elvis Andrus hitting his first career grand slam. Instead the Rangers lost it in extra innings 13-10. They gave up three runs in the seventh, four in the eighth and Kela received his first blown save of the season when the A’s led off with a homer to tie the game in the ninth.

Then after throwing nearly 90 pitches on Saturday, Austin Bibens-Dirkx was called on to pitch the 10th inning. And of course because a lesson hasn’t been learned when facing him, Khris Davis hit a 3-run homer to ultimately win the game for the A’s.

On Wednesday the Rangers took a 5-4 lead into the ninth with Jose Leclerc in for the save. And should the Rangers get to him, Davis would be batting fourth in the inning. SPOILER ALERT! They do get to him and he does hit a home run. And that’s how the Rangers one again let Khris Davis beat them.

At this point in the week, I had never been more frustrated or flat out mad at the Rangers. And knowing they’re going to Houston to face the number one team in the division, hope was low.

Instead in the last series between these two teams for the season, the Rangers do something no other team has done this season and that’s sweep the Houston Astros.

Now if you didn’t watch any of these games, you probably don’t believe me. I watched all seven of these games and I still can’t believe the same team played these two series this way in the same season let alone the same week.

The Rangers handed Dallas Keuchel, who has had a really strong month, his 9th loss on Friday. Ariel Jurado got his first win in the game where the Rangers faced Justin Verlander. In a close game on Sunday, the Rangers beat Lance McCullers Jr.

On Saturday, Rougned Odor went 5-for-5 with two homers, one was inside-the-park.

The Rangers outscored the Astros 22-8 in their final meeting of the year.

The Rangers are now headed to Arizona where they’ll play two games and we will all be anxiously waiting to see if our favorites will be leaving us.

Gifs of the week: