Cole Hamels, Rangers don’t care where he starts, but where they finish

Once a pitcher has logged multiple Opening Day starts, the feeling he gets can be akin to an adult having a birthday.

It’s just another day.

“After a while, it’s not really a big deal,” said left-hander Cole Hamels, who has started three openers.

So, Hamels wasn’t bent out of shape when told that Yu Darvish will be the Texas Rangers’ starting pitcher on Opening Day. Hamels won’t be bent out of shape if his schedule holds and he ends up pitching the third game of the season.

He simply wants to be pitching on the last day of the season and beyond, with at least 200 innings and 30 starts on his baseball-reference.com page. It would rate as a shock if he didn’t reach those plateaus.

The Rangers plan to help him get there, too, ever mindful that the wear and tear of an 11-season career could start to take a toll on the 33-year-old four-time All-Star.

Hamels still wants the ball and will get it, but he recognizes that Father Time is undefeated.

“It’s the nature of the innings,” said Hamels, the Rangers’ Opening Day starter in 2016. “There are easy innings and there are stressful innings. My ultimate goal every year is to pitch 200 innings and to make sure they are less stressful innings. There’s probably a better way to monitor those stressful innings so that you can be a little more fresh.”

Hamels looked fresh and sharp Sunday as he allowed one run in five innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He threw 74 pitches in his longest outing of the spring and has pieced together back-to-back quality outings after struggling early on.

That’s not unusual either. His dicey spring results are as consistent as him hitting his workload goals. Hamels has pitched 200 innings in seven consecutive seasons and has logged 30 starts in nine straight seasons.

Despite those feats, matched by only a handful of pitchers in the game, Hamels said that he has never felt any ill effects at the end of a season or entering the next one.

“I never have,” he said. “I’ve been very fortunate to maintain my health. I don’t have a leash. Guys can just let me go, and they know that I’m going to do what they expect.”

Hamels is expected to remain on schedule through the start of the regular season, which means that he would be in line for work Friday at Globe Life Park in an exhibition against the Kansas City Royals and then again April 5 to wrap up the season-opening three-game series against the Cleveland Indians.

There’s nothing to read into the fact that Martin Perez is lined up for the second game.

“You can read into what happens after today what you want,” manager Jeff Banister said. “More importantly it’s about getting these guys built up to the point where they’re comfortable and we’re comfortable. Where they’re line up for the rotation, I think that will continue to play itself out.

“Having Cole in the rotation is more important than where he is in the rotation.”

Banister correctly contends that how pitchers line up doesn’t really matter. Off days, rainouts and injuries jumble up rotations throughout the season, many times only a few weeks into the season.

Hamels will get rest like the rest of the pitchers in the rotation whenever possible. The end of the season is more important to the Rangers and to Hamels than what happens early in the season.

“It’s a matter of just monitoring and knowing when to take it easy,” Hamels said. “You have to admit to yourself that you’re not Superman, you’re not a machine, you’re not invincible. Once you can start admitting to that, you can start correcting any perception that you always have to go harder. You can be smarter. You need to create efficiencies because the harder you work can create deficiencies.”

If he can do that, then he can keep Father Time at a distance and accomplish his goals. And that’s where Opening Day starts get to be not such a big deal.

The big deal is making each start and logging innings to help his team reach its goals.

“We’ve got to make 34 starts,” Hamels said. “Each one of us, if we’re starting the first game, the second game, the third game, our job is to be able to go out there and be accountable every fifth day to make sure we can help this team win.”

This story was originally published March 26, 2017 at 8:00 PM with the headline "Cole Hamels, Rangers don’t care where he starts, but where they finish."