Rangers are 1-0 after Friday roster shakeup. Could youthful spirit lead to winning streak?
Tyler Alexander became the second former TCU left-hander to start a game this season against the Texas Rangers at Globe Life Park, where he took the mound Friday night for the Detroit Tigers.
The left-hander was nearly out of the sixth inning, but an error extended the frame and led to his departure. Alexander, who went to Southlake Carroll High before heading to Fort Worth, allowed four runs on 10 hits in his fourth MLB start.
“It was pretty cool, yeah,” Alexander said. “I grew up going to these games, sitting in the stands. I got to play a high school scrimmage on this field when I was a freshman. I hadn’t been on this field since, so it was pretty cool being back.”
The other ex-Frogs pitcher to return to Tarrant County is Alex Young, who beat the Rangers last month for the Arizona Diamondbacks. He brought along former TCU first baseman Kevin Cron, who played two games at DH for the D’backs.
Young, though, fared better.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 5-4 victory.
Fresh faces
The four players who landed on the Texas Rangers’ roster Friday aren’t total strangers.
Isiah Kiner-Falefa and Jose Trevino already made their MLB debuts. Scott Heineman was the Rangers’ Minor League Player of the Year last season. Emmanuel Clase has been talked about for the past two months while blowing hitters away at Double A Frisco.
But the Rangers are essentially giving each of them a fresh look the final two months while expecting them to help lift the club.
Yes, that goes for Kiner-Falefa, who spent the first three months of the season at catcher. He’s an infielder again, and is as pleased as (Hawaiian) punch.
He had a single in his return to the Rangers as their third baseman. Heineman collected the first two hits of his MLB career as the center fielder.
“I think it was the quality of the at-bats I was impressed with,” manager Chris Woodward said.
Trevino will start a game this weekend. He’s young, so he might get to sweat it out Sunday afternoon. Everyone wants to see Clase’s big right arm, so look for him this weekend, too.
The Rangers are 1-0 with the quartet on their roster. The newcomers aren’t going to play every day, though Kiner-Falefa will play more often than not. But they will take playing time away from more established players, except for Clase in a bullpen full of rookies.
That’s the plan, which also includes winning. That concept seems a bit more perilous than it did 48 hours ago, though an argument can be made that the Rangers are a better team.
They should be better defensively with Kiner-Falefa and Trevino. They are more versatile. There’s also the thought that some eager young players might provide a needed August spark.
“These guys will hopefully be hungry and we can snowball it into some wins,” Woodward said.
It’s not like they won some kind of lottery. They earned their roster spots through strong performances, and Kiner-Falefa showed last season that he can be a capable big-league infielder.
The major leagues will test him, though not as much as the others. The Rangers want to see all of it.
“I’m excited to see what this team can do,” Woodward said.
Lynn a K machine
Lance Lynn has never struck out 200 batters in a season. He came close in 2013, falling two shy, but has only been within 19 since.
He’s 30 shy of the 200 plateau this season — on Aug. 2 — after striking out 10 Tigers in seven innings.
“It would mean a lot because I’ve never had one,” he said.
Lynn became the seventh pitcher in club history to post six 10-strikeout games in one season, and the first since Yu Darvish in 2014. Darvish and Nolan Ryan did it three times, and Fergie Jenkins, Jim Bibby, Bobby Witt and C.J. Wilson did it once apiece.
Cole Hamels is the last Rangers pitcher with 200 Ks, with exactly 200 in 2016. Lynn, who could have as many as 10 starts left this season, should blow past that.
He said that with age comes knowledge, and he is applying that along with more velocity on his fastball. He knows how to set up hitters better than in past seasons.
“I’m giving you a chance to hit one early in the count,” said Lynn, whose 14 wins are tied for the MLB lead. “If you don’t do it, I’m going to try to strike you out at the end.”
Ex Rangers first-rounder debuts
Heineman wasn’t the only players Friday night to collect his first career hit. He also wasn’t the only former Rangers draft choice to do it.
Former Rangers first-rounder Travis Demeritte tripled off Lynn in the seventh inning for his first hit. He was stranded there as Lynn completed seven innings for the 11th time this season.
Demeritte was selected with the 30th overall pick in the 2013 draft after the Rangers selected Chi Chi Gonzalez at No. 23 overall. They stuck with Demeritte after he was suspended 80 games in 2015 for using a banned performance-enhancing drug.
But he was selected to the Futures Game in 2016 and traded a few weeks later to the Atlanta Braves for pitchers Lucas Harrell and Dario Alvarez as the Rangers made a push for a second straight American League West title.
Demeritte always had power and speed, but he was blocked at second base by Rougned Odor and Jurickson Profar. The Braves parted with him ahead of the trade deadline, and the Tigers put him on their roster.
So, it’s not like the Rangers haven’t been drafting MLB players. They just end up trading a lot of them away.
This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 11:06 PM.
