Week 2 Recap: A Series Win Then Swept with A No-Hitter (Plus a Series Preview)

Season record: 3-6

Week 2 record: 2-4

Series record: 1-2

The Rangers started their homestand off fairly well, they lost their home opener but took the next two games against Toronto to give them their first series win of the 2021.

Then San Diego came to town and got their first no-hitter in their 53-year-old franchise. Which is always a great way to start a series right? Well if you’re not the team on the other side of that. Had Joey Gallo not taken one for the team in the fourth on a hit-by-pitch, Joe Musgrove would be celebrating a perfect game.

The standout, as far as improvement goes, in this series for the Rangers was Mike Foltynewicz. After his first outing lasted a mere four innings, and giving up four runs on four hits and three walks, his outing on Sunday helped from his ERA from 9.00 to 4.09. He pitched seven quality innings, gave up just two hits, a homerun the lone run he gave up, and three walks. A strong start all the way around as he improved on his efficiency in pitches needed, 91 pitches in this game compared to 95 in four innings.

Add this to the pile of evidence pitching wins and losses are dumb.

TAMPA BAY SERIES PREVIEW

The Rangers head to the home of the reigning American League champs to face the Tampa Bay Rays in a four game series.

Game one will feature each team’s starting ace. The Rangers’ Dane Dunning will take the mound to face Tampa for the first time, hoping to build off his 2021 debut of giving up just a homerun in five innings and striking out six.

Texas will face Tyler Glasnow for just the second time in his career. Glasnow pitched six scoreless innings in 2018 against the Rangers. In two starts this season, against the Boston Red Sox and Miami Marlins, he’s given up a combined one run on five hits and struck out 15. He’s gone six innings in both starts.

Tuesday’s game will feature Kyle Gibson and Ryan Yarbrough. Gibson is looking to build off his turn-around game from last week in which he went six scoreless innings against the Blue Jays and struck out eight. Gibson has a 5.12 ERA and 1.47 WHIP in his career against Tampa, he’s faced them at least once every season from 2013-2019.

Yarbrough has faced the Rangers twice in his career and hasn’t faired so well. He’s given up six runs on eight hits in 11 innings and he’s currently coming off a bad outing in which he gave up nine runs, just six earned, off nine hits and a walk in five innings against Boston. Tuesday’s game will be his first home start of 2021, he has a 4.46 ERA in 169.2 innings at Tropicana.

Kohei Arihara will make the start in Wednesday’s game and with this being the middle of a 13 game stretch of games for the Rangers and a not so strong bullpen, Texas would like to see at least five innings from the righty. He went five innings in his first start, four in his second. The 41-year-old lefty, Rich Hill will start for the Rays. He’s currently sporting a 7.20 ERA after two starts. This being his 17th season, it’s surprising that this will only be the fourth time Hill will face the Rangers. This will be just his second start against Texas, he appeared in two games against them in 2013 but combined for two-thirds of an inning. His only start against the Rangers came in 2016, Hill went six innings and gave up just one run on three hits and a walk.

Closing out the series the Rays do not yet have a starter listed but Jordan Lyles will get the start for Texas. This will be Lyles’s third game against Tampa Bay, only the second start. His last start came in 2013 where he went 6.2 innings and gave up just two runs on six hits and three walks. In his other outing against them in 2016, he went four scoreless innings and gave up just three hits and two walks, This will be the first time pitching at Tropicana Field.