The Texas Rangers finished the 10-game trip with a 4-6 record, but that certainly doesn’t tell the full story. Let’s look at a few takeaways.
Everyone loves a nice little West Coast road trip in the month of April, and the Texas Rangers just wrapped up a lengthy one.
For the last 10 days, the Rangers have been on the road, first taking on the back-to-back reigning World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers before heading to California’s capital of Sacramento for a four-game set with the Athletics, and finally wrapping it up in the Pacific Northwest with a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners.
Texas finished the 10-game trip with a 4-6 record, but that certainly doesn’t tell the full story. Let’s break down a few takeaways from a long road swing.
Offense Was Often Too Little Too Late, But Hey, There Was A Fight - In nearly each of the six games the Rangers lost, they were battling with a real chance to tie or take the lead in the late innings.
Being just 22 games into the season, you have to be encouraged by the means in which Texas has not been “out of” too many games as they head towards the end.
Despite That, The Offense Will Have To Score Earlier, More Often - On the flip side of late-inning rallies is the fact that late-inning rallies are needed.
Undoubtedly, the Rangers' offense will have to produce more runs in the early/middle innings in order to be able to win more of these games.
However, there’s no denying Texas has gotten off to a fast start offensively in a lot of the games they have won and even some they have lost. They will just need to do a little more in the middle innings to support those efforts.
Starting Pitching Did Not Give Great Length - Outside of Nathan Eovaldi’s seven-inning start against the Athletics, the Rangers' starting rotation was limited to a lot of short outings.
Obviously, given the talent of this starting rotation, that trend isn’t likely to continue, but there’s also the sheer fact that it just can’t continue.
The Rangers' bullpen was running on fumes at the end of the road trip, something that certainly is nowhere near sustainable.
As the Rangers get set to open a nine-game, nine-day homestand, the rotation will have to provide some more length to give the bullpen some rest.
Josh Jung Is All Of The Sudden Hot - After slumping profusely out of the gates, Josh Jung is one of the hottest hitters in all of baseball in April.
In the last two weeks, Jung is hitting .400 with a .457 on-base percentage, a .725 slugging percentage, a 1.182 OPS with two home runs and seven RBI.
Surely, the Rangers won’t expect that level of production all the way down the stretch, but anything remotely close and the Texas offense adds a whole different layer.
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