Opening Day in good hands for Texas Rangers if Lance Lynn pitches like he did Tuesday
Seven months ago, just before the pre-Christmas trade for Corey Kluber, the Texas Rangers believed they had the kind of starting rotation that could carry them to the postseason in the 2020 MLB season.
They believed that five months ago when they headed to Arizona for spring training, and four months ago when camp was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
That hasn’t changed ahead what is now a 60-game season, and what has transpired the past five days at Globe Life Field has only reinforced the notion.
Each of the five projected starters have pitched. Lance Lynn, the Opening Day starter, made his first camp appearance Tuesday, but had sneaked in four innings Thursday before spring training 2.0 officially opened.
Lynn was dominant Tuesday over six innings.
By all accounts, the rotation has been impressive.
“The quality of who they are is what we expected,” said manager Chris Woodward, adding that it’s easy to see that the rotation had put in the work during the shutdown. “For them to be able to go out and go four or five innings each is pretty special, and we’re really excited about that. It just speaks volumes about their commitment to our ballclub.”
Only right-hander Jordan Lyles, who pitched Monday, failed to hit four innings the first time through, but he logged 74 pitches in 3 1/3 innings in his build-up for the regular season. He was tagged for four runs on eight hits, but left his outing knowing he has work to do.
The other four do, too, though not much as far as one lineup regular is concerned.
“I think all the hitters can say the same: It looks like they haven’t even been in quarantine,” left fielder Willie Calhoun said. “It’s looks like they’ve been throwing the whole time, for me. I’m excited for them, and I can’t wait to play behind them.”
In fairness to the hitters, they should catch up to the pitchers once they see more of them. While the Rangers scheduled games beginning on the first day of camp to give the starters a chance to work toward the regular season, they knew the hitters needed to see live pitching.
Against Lynn, though, the hitters might not have figured him out if they had seen 162 games’ worth of live pitching.
The right-hander shut down a lineup top-heavy with regulars over six scoreless innings. The only hiccup came when he allowed consecutive two-out singles in his second inning, which, judging by the loud profanity he yelled, didn’t sit well.
“This ballpark should have the ability to be loud because one good yell had some good carry, that’s for sure,” Lynn said.
Those were the only two hits he allowed.
After completing five innings on only 70 pitches, Lynn worked another inning but had to record five outs just to get his final pitch count to 83, 61 of which were strikes.
He struck out eight, including Shin-Soo Choo twice, and didn’t walk a batter.
“Stuff looked great,” Woodward said. “Ninety-five in the last inning. Maintained his stuff through the whole outing. He had a little chip on his shoulder in the beginning. He was talking smack to a lot of our lineup because he knew he was facing our main guys. Honestly it was really impressive seeing the ball come out of his hand, executing his pitches. Everything looked great.”
After a bullpen day Wednesday, left-hander Mike Minor and Kluber will pitch Thursday and be followed by Kyle Gibson on Friday and Lyles on Saturday. A day off Sunday will enable the Rangers to set their rotation heading into the season — Lynn, Minor, Kluber, Gibson and Lyles.
Despite three off days over the first eight games of the season, Woodward said the plan for now is to stick to a five-man rotation rather than skipping Lyles in favor of an extra start for Lynn.
But if he pitches like he did Tuesday, the Rangers might be easily swayed in a shortened 60-game season.
Lynn would be ready.
“To be able to get six innings pretty much at 82-83 pitches is good,” Lynn said. “It gets me ready for what I want to do to be ready for Opening Day and be full-go with no restrictions. I am right where I want to be.”
