Week 4 Recap: Strong then Swept and Sloppy

Season record: 9-13

Week 4 record: 2-4

Series record: 3-4

Once again, the Rangers started the week strong with a series win against a division team and then ended it getting swept in Chicago and looking sloppy. In the short sample size of three full weeks of games, Texas has continuously won the first series of the week (Blue Jays, Rays, Angels) and then lost (Baltimore) or gets swept (Padres and White Sox) by the weekend teams.

The Rangers started out looking really dominant in L.A. in game one keeping Trout and Ohtani 0-for-8 for five strikeouts. That was short lived with Tuesday’s game, while they did get six walks from Ohtani, the most he’s given up in a game in his time in the MLB. The Rangers stole the final game and the series from the Angels on Wednesday, thanks in part to Adolis Garcia’s three run homer in the 8th which was followed by a Nate Lowe solo homer to tie it up. The Rangers won it in the ninth with Gallo walking with the bases loaded and a balk.

There luck and offense production did not follow them after Thursday’s off-day into Chicago. While Saturday’s 2-1 loss was the best of the three game set, the Rangers very quickly fell behind in both Friday’s and Sunday’s games. In Friday’s game they fell behind 5-0 and Sunday’s they well behind 8-1, both after three innings.

Kyle Gibson’s start on Saturday was the notable outlier of the series. He went six innings and gave up just the one run, Chicago walked it off in the bottom of the ninth. While Friday’s starter, Dane Dunning, went just 2.2 innings, throwing 62 pitched. Sunday’s start Arihara threw 70 pitches in two innings, both starters gave up five runs.

One last notable stat? Joey Gallo has now reached base in all 21 games he’s played in.