Texas Rangers: 3 takeaways from an ugly four-game sweep in Houston

Some questions emerging in the pitching staff.

During the early stages of the 2021 season, the Texas Rangers pitching staff was exceeding expectations, performing far better than what some of the initial projection models had them doing.

During this past series to the Astros, it looks like the team’s staff collectively started to come back down to earth.

Mike Foltynewicz was actually half decent during his start on Thursday, but Friday’s game was a complete and utter disaster. The Rangers allowed ten runs to cross the plate, with Wes Benjamin, Brett de Geus, and Hyeon-jong Yang all really struggling with their command. Yang faltering in the manner that he did was particularly concerning, as he had stacked up a few solid outings for Texas prior to Friday’s loss.

The woes continued onto Saturday, as Dane Dunning lasted just four innings during his own respective start, allowing four runs to cross the plate before turning things over to the bullpen. Dunning allowed ten batters to reach base as well, only striking out three in the process.

Dunning’s ceiling is still rather high when it comes to his longterm potential with the Rangers, but Saturday’s poor outing happened nevertheless.

Kyle Gibson was pretty great during his start on Sunday (we’ll get to him on the next slide), but the bullpen failed to keep it together, as Joely Rodriguez allowed four runs to score in the 8th inning, costing the Rangers a shot at spoiling the sweep.

Kyle Gibson just keeps on cruising along.

A running theme over the past few weeks, Kyle Gibson put in yet another productive outing during his game four start on Sunday afternoon. He went 7.0 strong innings, only allowing two runs and six total baserunners.

Considering just how well the Astros have been swinging the bat as of late, 7.0 innings of two-run ball should absolutely be commended in this specific instance.

Gibson’s ERA on the season sits at a 2.32, and his WHIP is just a hair over 1.000. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, if Gibson continues to pitch at this caliber over the next two months, the Rangers are likely looking at a situation where they’d be getting back a pretty sweet prospect (or two) for the veteran right-hander’s services come the trade deadline.

Contending teams are always willing to overpay for pitching, and Gibson is putting up legit “Ace” numbers. I know the deadline is still a ways away, but it’s something to keep in the back of your mind nevertheless as Gibson continues to keep his ERA in the low 2.00 range.

Like previously stated, life doesn’t get much easier for Texas moving forward as they’re set to take on the Yankees over the course of yet another four-game series. An additional test for this rebuilding Rangers squad.