Texas Rangers Week 20 Recap: Two Minor Wins

Season record: 59-58

Week 20 record: 2-4

Series record: 15-13, 10 splits

The Texas Rangers had just two wins this week. Both were 1-0 scores. Both had Mike Minor has the starting pitcher. Both included Jose Leclerc saves.

It was a very weird week for the Rangers as far as offense goes. The entire Cleveland series was low scoring and it felt like it had been a while since we had seen the Rangers have such a low scoring game, much less three games in a row in one series. The Rangers were outscored 7-2 in the Cleveland series, which would seem more appropriate for just a one game score rather than the combination of three.

Even in Milwaukee, while in Friday’s game alone they looked better at the plate than they had all of the Cleveland series, they still struggled to hold onto a lead or take advantage of scoring opportunities.

Every game in the weekend series was won by just one run.

Minor, Leclerc, and sacrifice flies were the common denominator in both of the Rangers wins last week. They started the week with the 1-0 win in Cleveland on Monday, scoring their one run in the fourth inning after an Elvis Andrus triple followed by a Nomar Mazara sac fly. Sunday’s game ended the week with a 1-0 win in Milwaukee, scoring their one run in the seventh after Willie Calhoun walked. Rougned Odor hit a double, and Calhoun scored on Isiah Kiner-Felefa’s sac fly.

Those two games included Minor throwing seven and eight scoreless innings, completing consecutive starts of at least seven innings with no runs for the first time in his career.

The Rangers now head to Toronto for three games to finish up their season series against the Blue Jays before heading home for a four game series to finish up the season series against Minnesota. That will kick off an eight-game home stand (August 20 is a double header against Los Angeles Angels, which is the postponed game from July 1).