Rangers reaction: What did we learn during the White Sox sweep?

Back in the visiting manger’s office at U.S. Cellular Field, Jeff Banister sat at his temporary desk contemplating what had just happened to his club Sunday afternoon.

The White Sox had swept the Rangers with a 4-1 win and Banister was assessing the weekend. The last time the Rangers were swept was July 3-5 by the Angels.

“Tough three days, three days that we learned some things about ourselves,” Banister said. “We’ll move on and go to the next series.”

He declined to elaborate, preferring to keep that “in-house.”

Allow me, however, to use that as an excuse to turn this Rangers Reaction into the three things we learned about the state of the Texas Rangers as we prepare for the final week of April, which begins Monday against the Yankees at Globe Life Park.

1. The bullpen is not bullet proof — The Rangers vaunted bullpen was touched for runs in each of the three games in Chicago. That’s going to happen from time to time, even to the best relievers in the game. Case in point, the two runs Sam Dyson allowed in the eighth inning Saturday. In 8 1/3 innings over the weekend, including 4 1/3 in the 11-inning game Saturday, the bullpen combined to allow four earned runs on 10 hits and seven walks. With Keone Kela on the disabled list until at least July, Tom Wilhelmsen, Tony Barnette and Phil Klein will be called upon more often to get the game to Diekman, Dyson and Tolleson.

2. Heart of order needs jump start — Prince Fielder, Mitch Moreland and Adrian Beltre are the coal that makes the Rangers’ offensive engine go. Combined, they went 6 for 36 against the White Sox and left 22 runners on base. Each tipped their cap to White Sox pitching, including Moreland, who ripped pitches in each of the first two games only to come away empty when White Sox fielders made incredible plays. Fielder, who went 0 for 5 Saturday (only did that three times in 2015) followed it with an 0 for 3 with a walk Sunday. He’s out of sorts at the plate at the moment and unable to detect the issue. “I don’t know. If I knew I wouldn’t do it,” he said.

3. Rotation good, not great — It’s hard to quibble with the Rangers starting pitching because they’ve reliably gone at least five innings in the first 19 games of the season, the most ever by a Rangers rotation to start a season. But, as Derek Holland pointed out after going  6 1/3 Sunday, they need to start peppering in some seven and eight-inning outings. It would do the bullpen a whole mess a good. The season is not even a month old and Jake Diekman was off-limits for two games in Chicago because he already has nine appearances. Only Cole Hamels, who will miss his Monday start because of a strained left groin (and be replaced by left-handed veteran Cesar Ramos from Triple A Round Rock) has gone seven innings. That was on Opening Day.

This story was originally published April 25, 2016 at 2:02 AM with the headline "Rangers reaction: What did we learn during the White Sox sweep?."