Texas Rangers Week 21 Recap & Cleveland Series Preview

Season record: 43-81

Week 21 record: 1-5

Series record: 11-26, 3 split

Let’s just forget about that I forgot to do the Week 20 recap ok? All you need to know is Beltre is in the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame.

(Also even though the week usually ends Sunday, we will be counting Monday’s game against Boston as week 21 since the postponement, ok? Ok.)

The Rangers got swept at home by the Seattle Mariners and then went to Boston and lost that series as well. Upside? With the one win in Boston, the Rangers did manage to win the season series against the Red Sox.

Saturday’s game had to have been the Rangers best game of the season and probably Boston’s worse. Every Rangers batter in the lineup got a hit, totaling to 17 hits by the end of it. While the Red Sox managed eight errors.

Sunday’s game was postponed and played Monday, in which Texas almost managed a come back to take the weekend series but gave up a walk-off grand slam in the 11th to quickly and cruelly ruin that.

The Rangers are now headed to Cleveland to face the future Guardians. All three games of the series will start at 6:10 which means when they come back for the six game homestand this weekend, they will arrive back late Thursday/possibly early Friday just in time to play in-sate rivals, the Houston Astros.

On Tuesady, Cleveland will start Eli Morgan. The rookie will make his 12th start of the season. Morgan is currently 2-5 with a 5.80 ERA in 54.1 innings pitched. He will be matched up against Taylor Hearn who will be making his 5th start of the season and 36th appearance. Hearn is 2-4 this season with a 3.97 ERA in 65.2 innings pitched. This will be Hearn’s first appearance against Cleveland.

In Wednesday’s game, Texas will face Zach Plesac. Plesac is 7-4 with a 4.87 ERA in 18 starts this season. In 2019, Plesac faced the Rangers twice and went 1-0 with a 0.69 ERA (nice) in 13 innings. Spencer Howard will get his fourth start as a Ranger in his first appearance against the Cleveland baseball team.

For the series finale, Cleveland doesn’t currently have a starter listed but the Texas will have Dane Dunning on the mound. The 5-8 righty will face Cleveland for the second time in his career. He faced them just once in 2020 when he pitched for the White Sox. Dunning had gone four innings and gave up four runs on six hits and a walk.