Previewing the Texas Rangers' fourth series of the season: Kansas City Royals

The Texas Rangers will return to the friendly confines of Globe Life Field on Monday night, for the start of a short three-game home stand against the Kansas City Royals. The Rangers will enter the series with a 5 - 4 record and tied for first place in the AL West with the Angels, while the Royals have a record of 3 -7 and are toward the bottom of the AL Central standings.

Yes, the Rangers boast the better record, but they are coming into this series after dropping both of the previous ones, against the Baltimore Orioles and the Chicago Cubs, 1 - 2 apiece. Kansas City on the other hand is rolling into town after taking two out of three from the San Fransico Giants on the road. They came very close to sweeping the series before an eighth-inning Giant's rally spoiled the Royal's sweep hopes.

Texas Rangers return home to take on the Kansas City Royals for a three-game series

Over the last week, the Rangers have had two games that have looked extremely solid all the way around, and the rest have been troublesome in at least one, and sometimes multiple areas of the game. Most notably the offense has been struggling a bit. Then in the game on Saturday against the Cubs, nothing seemed to work as the defense was also miserable while committing a laughable five errors. Those games are going to happen from time to time and thankfully, the Rangers shook it off and played well on Sunday to salvage one win out of their trip to the Windy City.

Andrew Heaney will be pitching for the Rangers on Monday night and will be looking to avenge his rough Texas debut from last Tuesday. It will be interesting to see what Heaney's approach will be in the series opener. The Royals are a team that has struggled mightily thus far in 2023. As a team, they are hitting an MLB worst .184 and are tied with Detroit, Miami, and Oakland with the fewest runs scored at 27. By contrast, the Rangers are hitting .242 and have scored 47 total runs (27 in the first two games of the season).

However, the pitching of the two teams matches up extremely close with each other. Ranger's pitchers currently sit number six in MLB with a 3.65 ERA and the Royals slot in at number seven with a 3.74 ERA. The Rangers are number nine in strikeouts with 88 and the Royals are number eight with 89. It should be noted that the Royals have played one more game than the Rangers to this point.

Kansas City will run out 39-year-old veteran Zack Greinke on Monday night to dual with Heaney. Greinke is a living legend, both on the field with his pitching abilities, and also with his highly intelligent, quirky, and often odd behaviors and actions. Just one recent example of Greinke's zaniness is his use of the pitch com device. Several times this spring and even in one of his regular season starts, he has called his own pitch, only to shake himself off and then call a different pitch. It is hilarious and just another reason to love the uniqueness of one of the great pitchers of his time.

Bobby Witt Jr will be making another trip to his home state of Texas and Ranger's pitchers will be hoping that the talented 22-year-old infielder doesn't find his swing while getting some home cooking. So far this season Witt has had a difficult time at the plate. In his ten games, he has five hits (two of them are the home run variety) and thus is slashing .143/.211/.314. Despite the early struggles at the plate, the second overall pick in the 2019 MLB draft out of Colleyville Heritage HS has been flashing the leather and making some highlight reel plays in the field. It is just a matter of time before Witt gets hot at the plate, but hopefully, it won't be at the Rangers' expense.

The Rangers need a series win, and hosting the Royals might just be the recipe to make that happen. Any MLB team can beat another one on any given day, but to be a contending playoff team, it is imperative to take care of business against the weaker teams. Following this series, Texas will be off again on Thursday before traveling to Houston for a three-game weekend series starting on Friday. The six-game road trip will conclude against these very Kansas City Royals on Monday thru Wednesday of next week.