New-look bullpen helps Rangers avoid sweep by Orioles

Anyone who questioned why the Texas Rangers needed right-hander Jeremy Jeffress to be included in Monday’s trade for Jonathan Lucroy got their answer Thursday night.

It wasn’t necessarily what Jeffress did in his Rangers debut, tossing a scoreless seventh inning, but what it allowed manager Jeff Banister to do after a four-run lead was cut to one against starter A.J. Griffin.

Banister went to four power arms over the final 3  1/3 innings, and had another in reserve if needed. It wasn’t, as the Rangers’ new-look offense had its best game since the non-waiver trade deadline and as the new-look bullpen closed down a 5-3 victory.

Keone Kela, Jeffress, Matt Bush and Sam Dyson allowed only four singles to help the Rangers avoid the sweep, and Jake Diekman was waiting in case trouble arose in the eighth or ninth.

The possibilities of the bullpen now seem limitless, especially when they are all fresh.

“The idea of shortening games, we had that,” Banister said. “Every one of them was a leverage situation. They all proved they are quite capable.”

Griffin (5-1) allowed three runs in 5  2/3 innings to win his second consecutive start, and Jonathan Lucroy hit his first homer with the Rangers. Ian Desmond had two RBIs, including the first run in a two-run fourth against Wade Miley, and Carlos Beltran had two hits and an RBI blooper that made it 4-0 entering the fifth.

Griffin needed only 47 pitches over the first four innings, allowing only two hits, but Mark Trumbo and Pedro Alvarez hit back-to-back homers to open the fifth and Hyun Soo Kim hit the first pitch of the sixth for another homer.

Griffin got the next two hitters on fly balls, and Banister didn’t want him to face Trumbo again even though he had thrown only 77 pitches. Kela entered and used his power fastball-slider combo to strike out Trumbo to end the sixth.

“They’ve got some thunder in their lineup,” Banister said. “It looked in the fifth in the sixth like he started to elevate, and that’s why we turned it over to the bullpen.”

Jeffress hadn’t pitched in the seventh inning since last season and had pitched earlier than the ninth only once this season while saving 27 games for the Milwaukee Brewers. He allowed a leadoff single to Alvarez, induced a double play and allowed a single on a Baltimore chopper before getting a grounder for the final out.

Jeffress said that he treated his inning like it was the ninth, and in a one-run game it was a high-leverage inning.

“I just keep the mindset,” he said. “I just go right at guys and take nothing away.”

Banister liked what he saw and didn’t have any concerns about letting the right-hander face two left-handed hitters.

“This guy’s a closer. He’s been in those type of situations,” Banister said. “An electric arm. He hadn’t pitched in four days. He traveled from the West Coast to the East Coach, got a new uniform, had to learn a whole new group of guys, but he showed up well for us. It was very impressive from him tonight.”

Bush and Dyson, who registered his 23rd save, finished off a victory that allowed the Rangers to push their lead in the American League West to 6  1/2 games over the Houston Astros, who play host to the Rangers this weekend for a key three-game series.

None of the four relievers used Thursday threw more than 11 pitches, Diekman only warmed up and Tony Barnette didn’t pick up a ball. So, the full arsenal of relievers should be available Friday behind Martin Perez if needed.

The addition of Jeffress gives Banister flexibility on when to use Diekman, potentially making him even more effective down the stretch.

“All these guys, they’ve been doing great all year,” Jeffress said. “It takes a load off for sure, just knowing there are guys going out there pounding the zone and throwing strikes. We can take the defense off the field and get them back in there scoring some runs.”

Even Griffin, who appeared to be disappointed to not be given a chance to finish six innings for a second straight game, couldn’t argue with the results from the new-look Rangers bullpen.

“They did their thing like they always do,” Griffin said. “It was a good game.”

This story was originally published August 4, 2016 at 10:27 PM with the headline "New-look bullpen helps Rangers avoid sweep by Orioles."