Moreland’s homer a winner as Rangers’ trade chances look slim

The star of the night Saturday at Globe Life Park wasn’t in uniform for the Texas Rangers against the Kansas City Royals, though he looked like he could still do it.

Michael Young was inducted into the Rangers Hall of Fame, becoming the 20th player or contributor to be enshrined. It was a no-brainer, just as inducting Nolan Ryan and Ivan Rodriguez was.

Young is the franchise leader in most major offensive categories as well as the intangibles for which there are no statistics. He’s still working for the Rangers, though on his schedule as a special assistant to the general manager.

That schedule has been a little more packed this week, not just because of the induction weekend but because his insight has been sought as the Rangers continue to work for a significant contribution ahead of the non-waiver trade deadline.

His work during the past week has run parallel to a turnaround on the field for the Rangers, who produced another thriller for their sixth win in their past eight games.

Mitch Moreland launched a solo homer with two outs in the ninth inning, and Martin Perez allowed one run in seven innings in arguably his best start of the season as the Rangers walked away with their second walk-off victory of the homestand — this time 2-1.

“What our starters have done the last few days has been lights out; definitely picked us up for sure,” Moreland said. “Martin was another good example of that tonight. When you’ve got that, it takes a little weight off the offense to go up there and try to have good at-bats.”

The win, coupled with a Houston Astros walk-off loss, pushed the Rangers’ lead in the American League West to five games. It’s a good thing, too, because Rangers officials have resigned themselves to the possibility that they won’t make a significant trade before the 3 p.m. Monday deadline.

Young said that he essentially is an intern being mentored on the other side of baseball, the business side. He got a taste of it probably too many times in his career.

But he’s starting to learn the thinking of Jon Daniels and his crew and the decisions facing the Rangers as the hours melt away on their chance to make a splash for the stretch run.

Win now but mortgage the future to do so, or sit on the prospects and win with the players currently on the roster.

The Rangers continue to run into a wall when pursuing the perceived best available players, but the top of their board remains the same. They want Chris Sale and Chris Archer, with Matt Moore, Jake Odorizzi and Vince Velasquez.

The first two will cost them multiple elite prospects and young players, beginning with Jurickson Profar and Joey Gallo. That’s the cost of business in late July and the cost of winning, or at least getting a chance at it.

Young is starting to understand the management side of things.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen between now and the deadline, but I know that there will be no turn left unturned,” Young said Friday.

“There’s a lot of things to consider. When you talk about trade deadline, I can see now where a GM wants to sign guys, wants to develop guys and wants to see them become the player they should be in our uniform. As a player, you don’t really think about that. You think, ‘Give me the good player now because our job is to win now.’ ”

The Rangers are preparing themselves for the real possibility that no significant trade develops. Teams are asking for too much, and perhaps rightfully so in a thin market in which only a few teams are in an obvious rebuilding mode.

Tampa Bay would appear to be one of them, but the club-friendly contracts they have with their starting pitchers are perfect for a Rays franchise that has to operate on the cheap.

The Chicago White Sox are only two games below .500. They were built to win this season, and aren’t that far off. They would be knocked significantly off-course were they to deal Sale.

The New York Yankees, despite trading closer Aroldis Chapman, are a game above .500 and would see their sub-par offense get weakened further by dealing away slugger Carlos Beltran.

But if Perez can be a steady starter and if Moreland can be a more productive hitter, the Rangers can survive until Shin-Soo Choo, Colby Lewis and Derek Holland return from the disabled list and possibly take off again.

Perez had allowed 29 runs (22 earned) in his previous four starts, covering 21  1/3 innings, before blanking the Royals over his final six innings. The run he allowed, in the first inning, came as the result of the Rangers being unable to turn a double play.

Perez threw more curveballs, a pitch he has found confidence in again after working on it on the side and in bullpen session, and that made his changeup more effective. The sinker, though, is his key pitch, and it produced 14 groundball outs and three double plays.

“I believed in what I have and I commanded my pitches well inside and out,” Perez said. “When runners are on base, I just think, ‘Stay on top of the ball and throw the sinker down and away.’ ”

Moreland’s homer was the second walk-off of his career and his fourth homer in the past five games.

Quality starting pitching, good bullpen work (Matt Bush tossed two scoreless innings) and timely hitting was the formula that helped the Rangers streak to the top of the AL in June.

They’re still there, by the way, without a significant trade. The Rangers are bracing that nothing major happens by Monday and that they will need more nights down the stretch like the ones they got from Perez and Moreland.

“Any team in the big leagues needs help,” third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “Nobody has a complete, 100-percent perfect team. We would welcome help, but if not, we’ll continue to do our job and try and win the World Series.”

This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 11:36 PM with the headline "Moreland’s homer a winner as Rangers’ trade chances look slim."