Minor doesn’t understand why he leads WAR ratings, but ‘I never felt like I was a slouch’
No one who follows the Texas Rangers should have been surprised Monday when the opener a three-game series at Yankee Stadium was delayed by rain.
It rains almost every time the Rangers come to the Bronx.
The good news is that the rain passed and a game was completed before the next wave of rain was forecast to come in, but that delay of 2 hours, 52 minutes might not be the last of this seven-game road trip.
Rain is in the forecast for Wednesday in the finale against the New York Yankees, and Hurricane Dorian could cause delays this weekend at Baltimore. The current path of the massive storm runs up eastern seaboard with hurricane-force winds as late as Friday and Saturday.
One spaghetti model has a couple tracks that go more inland and closer to Camden Yards.
Hmm ... spaghetti.
Here’s some Rangers Reaction from a 7-0 victory.
Minor finishes
Mike Minor dominated the Los Angeles Angels last week for six innings, allowing only one hit, but he was unable to finish the seventh as the Angels scored four against him.
Considering the lineup he was facing Monday and the hitter-friendly confines, Minor might have been better at Yankee Stadium.
“Today, he finished it off,” manager Chris Woodward said.
Minor took a three-hitter into the eighth inning and exited after allowing five hits in 7 1/3 innings. The left-hander walked one and struck out five while throwing 111 pitches.
The Yankees hadn’t been shut out in 220 games.
“That’s pretty cool,” Minor said. “We mixed every pitch. I feel like when they thought we would go to one side of the plate, we went to the other side. We didn’t get in any patterns and we just attacked them.”
The end was much better than the beginning. The Yankees’ first batter, D.J. LeMahieu, smoked a liner back to the mound and hit Minor in the rear end.
Minor pounced on the ball and completed the play for the first out, but he’s doing to have a pretty colorful bruise where the sun doesn’t shine.
He moved closer to his goals of 200 innings (181 2/3) and 200 strikeouts (180). He also showed fans outside of Arlington why he is considered one of the top pitchers in the American League this season.
According to Baseball-Reference, Minor has the best WAR among all MLB pitchers. He doesn’t quite understand why.
“You look at guys like at Houston,” Minor said. “Gerrit Cole and Justin Verlander, I feel like those guys dominate every game and I feel like they’re better me. I never felt like I was a slouch out there. I’m just having a good year.”
Trevino again
Jose Trevino’s first three days in the major leagues last season will always be memorable, but they were his only three days until the Rangers recalled him last month to be part of the catching mix.
The games he has played the past week have been his best days in the majors.
Trevino homered in the fifth inning to push the Rangers’ lead to 2-0. Four of his past five hits have gone for extra bases, he has a hit in four straight starts, and he had his first three-hit game Friday.
The bat is what held Trevino back, that and a shoulder injury last season. The glove is still his calling card, and he has drawn raves for his ability to quickly find a groove with the pitching staff.
Trevino, a former infielder, is quick behind the plate, which has shown up on throws to second, blocking pitches in the dirt and getting on top of squibbers in front of the plate.
“He’s been working really hard offensively to become a hitter, but you see what he does behind the plate, man,” Woodward said. “The command that he has behind the plate, that was something I’d always heard. The leadership, skills, the game-calling, all those things are huge factors.”
He caught Minor for the first time, too. After initially not being on the same page, Minor said that he and Trevino sorted things out between innings.
“As the game went on and we kept facing some guys, we knew what we wanted to do,” Minor said.
Good news on the farm
Club brass has spoken for two seasons about all the talent the Rangers have at the lower levels of the minor leagues. A look at the standings suggests that talent is coming along nicely.
The Rangers’ five lowest teams qualified for the postseason, one team won its championship and another was the runner-up.
Low A Hickory clinched the Northern Division second-half title in the South Atlantic League on Monday with their last-day victory over Lexington. High A Down East on the first half of the Southern Division in the Carolina League; Short-Season A Spokane won the first swept both halves of the North Division; the Arizona rookies won the league title; and the Rangers’ team in the Dominican Summer League lost a best-of-3 series.
Four of the Rangers’ top-five prospects are at Down East or lower, with the exception being Double A center fielder Leody Taveras. He started the season at Down East and help the Wood Ducks to the first-half crown.
Others will be joining him at Double A next season and on the 40-man roster this winter to avoid exposure to the Rule 5 draft.
The South Atlantic League and Carolina League playoffs are tentatively scheduled to start this week, but Hurricane Dorian could have other ideas.
Nevertheless, things are going as well as at the lower levels as Rangers officials have been advertising.
This story was originally published September 2, 2019 at 6:57 PM.
