Texas Rangers Week 21 Recap: Sliding Down Hill

Season record: 60-64

Week 21 record: 1-6

Series record: 15-15, 10 splits

The Rangers won just one game this week. A week that could’ve easily been a series win and a series split ended up as a sweep and a series loss.

Texas has now skidded below .500 after taking until the final game to figure out Toronto’s horrible pitching and never quite being able to hold Minnesota’s bats at bay.

It seems as though when the pitching was holding it together, the Rangers offense couldn’t score. Then when they did start scoring, the pitching failed them. Now, they are back to having just two reliable starting pitchers in Mike Minor and Lance Lynn. Optimistically, we can hope Kolby Allard can fit in that category, although Allard has made just two starts and will make his third tonight. It’s a small sample size, but he made improvements between his first and second start and went deeper into the game.

Pedro Payano and Ariel Jurado have each had rough outings in their last two starts and while Jurado had been a good piece in the rotation for a number of starts, that hasn’t been the case recently.

This upcoming series against the Angels should be interesting to watch as far as starting pitching is concerned. Allard will start Monday, his first home start since being with the Rangers, and in Tuesday’s double header the Rangers will call up Brock Burke (he was part of the three team trade that included Jurickson Profar), who will make his major league debut in Game One, and then Joe Palumbo. Mike Minor will start the finale.