KANSAS CITY, Mo. — For the first time this year, the Texas Rangers will see an opponent for the second time. It’s a relatively quick turnaround, too, as Texas will travel north to play the Kansas City Royals again, this time in Kauffman Stadium. The first look came last Monday when the Rangers took two-of-three against KC in Arlington, one in convincing fashion and one via a walk-off.
Last week’s opener saw Andrew Heaney make history, striking out nine Royals in a row on his way to a victory. The second game saw the Rangers’ bullpen burn a Jacob deGrom gem to cough up the lead, dictating the need for extra innings. It was there that Texas saw its first walk-off win thanks to a three-run homer off the bat of Jonah Heim.
After a series win over the Houston Astros over the weekend, it’s off to KC for Texas as they look to complete a successful road trip.
Where Kansas City’s coming from
Kansas City will not be coming off of a plane this time around, as they hosted the Atlanta Braves over the weekend. It wasn’t a pretty series for the Royals, as the Braves won the first two games by large margins and hung on by one run to sweep the series on Sunday. At 4-12, the Royals remain in the basement in the American League Central.
Kansas City showed the most life in the final game against Atlanta, as they came back from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game before closer Scott Barlow surrendered a run in the ninth.
Starter Brady Singer, who started the opener versus the Braves, made some history of his own, although not exactly the kind to brag about. Singer struck out five over two innings, which sounds great until you look at the rest of the line.
The righty gave up nine hits, three homers and seven runs in those two innings. Overall, he gave up eight runs and four homers in five innings while striking out eight, matching lines that have only occurred three times in MLB history. Texas will get a look at Singer in Wednesday’s finale.
The finale saw Zack Greinke, who has yet to earn a win this season, give up four runs in six innings, although two of those came after an error by outfielder Edward Olivares. After scoring four runs off Greinke in last week’s series-opening win, the Rangers will miss the veteran righty this week.
Things to watch for
Game 16, 6:40 PM CST: Jacob deGrom (1-0, 4.32 ERA) vs. Jordan Lyles (0-2, 5.19 ERA)
Game 17, 6:40 PM CST: Nathan Eovaldi (1-2, 6.32 ERA) vs. Brad Keller (2-1, 2.12 ERA)
Game 18, 1:10 PM CST: Martin Perez (2-1, 2.87 ERA) vs. Brady Singer (1-1, 7.88 ERA)
Monday evening’s opener will bring a Jordan Lyles versus deGrom rematch of the second game from the series in Arlington. In that game, Lyles gave up four runs in 6 ⅓ innings, while deGrom surrendered just two in 7 IP.
deGrom, since his rough Opening Day assignment, has been exactly what Chris Young and company wanted to see when they signed him to a lucrative deal over the winter to front the rotation.
Against Baltimore and Kansas City, the righty has given up just three earned runs in 13 innings while striking out 20. Those 20 strikeouts, paired with the seven on opening day, means that deGrom has an American League-leading 14.58 strikeouts-per-nine innings rate through his first three starts. Normally such a stat wouldn’t seem sustainable, but deGrom has averaged 14.2 strikeouts per nine innings over the last four seasons spanning 41 starts.
The Rangers will send Nathan Eovaldi to the mound in the second game as he attempts to bounce back from the performance that put Texas in such a bad hole in the finale loss to KC last week. Eovaldi gave up six runs in five innings; although he struck out seven, he also allowed ten hits in the loss. He’ll face Brad Keller, who kept the Rangers’ offense quiet, allowing just one run over 6 ⅔ innings of work in their first game without Corey Seager’s bat in the lineup.
Wednesday’s finale will be a first time matchup, as Martin Perez goes against the aforementioned Singer. Perez is coming off of a start against the Astros last Friday where, while he got the win, he was inefficient with four walks. Perez was still effective as he only gave up two earned runs and five hits but his meager five innings stretched the bullpen.
The lineup and bullpen will look a little different from the last time that Texas took on Kansas City. Seager, who exited the Wednesday finale against the Royals, is sidelined with hamstring tightness. Meanwhile, Taylor Hearn, who gave up eight runs in his last two appearances, was sent down in favor of Josh Sborz.
Texas would like to see deGrom go deep, in case the bullpen needs to be called on for potentially another ineffective Eovaldi start or an inefficient Perez outing. The offense needs to see some consistency, as well, as they have been in “feast or famine” mode since the start of the season.
Do you think the Rangers can put some distance between themselves and second place this week? Share your predictions with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.