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Texas Rangers: 4 biggest reasons for the 4-game winning streak

The Rangers have come out of the break red hot and are taking care of business in this first home stand.

By Michael Sanders |
Tampa Bay Rays v Texas Rangers
Tampa Bay Rays v Texas Rangers / Ron Jenkins/GettyImages
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The Texas Rangers added to their winning streak last night with a walk-off win on a wild pitch from Pete Fairbanks. They have now won four in a row to open the second half. This is their longest winning streak since winning five in a row from June 2nd through June 6th. They have a chance to equal that season-high winning streak of five with a win on Tuesday night. Before we jump forward to the game on Tuesday let's look back at what are the four biggest reasons for this four-game winning streak.

The revival of the starting rotation

The success of this team early in the season was primarily led by the success of the starting rotation and a prolific offense. The rotation was going six or seven innings nearly every night and putting the bullpen in a position to have to pitch only two to three innings to close out wins. It was a formula that led this team to a 40-20 start.

The 12-19 mark leading into the break was primarily because the rotation was no longer going deep into games and the offense stunk with runners in scoring position. The bullpen pitched much better, but there were not many leads to protect. The reasons for these failure are many, but the main reason appears to be fatigue. The 30 games in 31 days prior to the break obviously wore on these players

The team has come out of the break and is playing refreshed and it is once again being led by the rotation. Keep in mind that Nathan Eovaldi has not pitched since the break and will go on Tuesday night. Jon Gray went six nnings, Andrew Heaney pitched 5 1/3, Martin Perez pitched five innings, and Dane Dunning on Monday night pitched seven innings. Each starter has pitched long enough to qualify for the win and that was not the case through much of June and into July.

Dunning had the best start of any of the starters on Monday night. He gave up two early runs on a Randy Arozarena sac fly in the first, and then a home run off the bat of Nathaniel's brother Josh in the second inning. He was lights out after that. He did not give up any more runs in his last five innings. He was pitching against Tampa ace Shane McClanahan, who is probably the leading contender for Cy Young award this season. Dunnings' ability to keep Tampa from adding to that lead allowed Texas to eventually take the lead.

Texas Rangers can win games late

This Texas team has won a lot of games, but one aspect that has really held this team back is their ability to come back and win games late. Prior to Sunday's comeback against the Cleveland Guardians they had not had a win when trailing in the eighth inning. They have had come from behind wins, but most of the rallies took place in the middle and not late innings. They have now come from behind late in three of the four games post All-Star break.

Monday night was another come-from-behind win. They were down 2-0 early and it stayed that way through the first five innings. The offense just kept pushing and finally, in the sixth against McClanahan, Robbie Grossman led the inning off with a single and then a slumping Ezequiel Duran stepped to the plate.

Just like that the game was tied. Tampa was one inning away from handing off a 2-0 lead to their bullpen. Duran made sure that was not going to hold. It was noted that prior to that at-bat Duran had been ice cold at the plate. He has 15 strikeouts this month and zero walks. That included multiple strikeout games both on Friday and Sunday in starts against the Guardians. He needed that home run to pick himself back up and hopefully get back on the right track.

Duran's home run is just another player coming through with a timely hit. The Rangers since the break have been much better with runners in scoring position. They are 12-33 in that situation, which is good for a .364 batting average. That is more in-line with the success they had through May.

Duran was not the only one with a timely hit. Josh Jung in the ninth led off with a hard-hit double that went right past Jose Siri in center field. Nathaniel Lowe came up and moved him to third on a ground ball to the second baseman. That put pinch-runner Josh Smith at third with two outs and Mitch Garver at the plate against former Ranger Pete Fairbanks. In this situation Garver would not be required to swing the bat to win the game.

If Lowe does not move Smith over with that groundball then Josh Smith would not have been in position to score. The Rangers did what they needed to do and won the game. Their ability to win this game was not all because of the offense.

Texas Rangers and their dominant bullpen

The bullpen since the break has been lights out in every game. They have now in 12 2/3 innings since the break and have only given up two runs. Both runs were allowed by Cody Bradford on Sunday when he gave up a 2-run home run to David Fry. Bochy has been expertly using both Will Smith and Aroldis Chapman in late-inning roles. Jose Leclerc has also pitched very well lately.

Monday night Will Smith was unavailable after pitching in all three games against the Guardians. Dunning pitched seven innings and then Bochy turned to Leclerc first for the eighth in a tie game and he pitched a scoreless eighth with one strikeout. Then in the ninth it was Chapman's turn and he was electric. That was the best outing for Chapman since being traded to Texas. Chapman struck out the side on 14 pitches and had nine strikes. The Rays only made contact on two of Chapman's 14 pitches and they were both foul balls. This was the the 103mph fastball that struck out Jose Siri

This bullpen after having a rough go in late April and early May and then struggling again in July is back on the right track and that is even after Josh Sborz was placed on the IL last Friday prior to the start of the series against the Guardians.

The bullpen is in a much more solid place with Chapman than they were before he arrived. He has been as advertised for this team and will be a game-changer as this team moves into the pennant race in August and September. This team would not be in this position, but for one more factor

Texas Rangers and their solid defense

I will say I write this section knowing about the incidents with Grant Anderson and Martin Perez failing to get to first on time on Saturday and Sunday. The defense has been solid. Josh Jung and Nathaniel Lowe are holding down the corners, Semien and Seager up the middle, and Jankowski, Taveras, and Garcia in the outfield. They are all making the hard plays and the routine plays. Josh Jung had one of the better plays of the post All-Star break in Monday night's game.

They are making the plays they need to make and not botching plays that lead to losses. That was not always the case in 2022. It has become so routine that they play good defense that when a pitcher fails to cover first in time it really does stand out. There has been very little to complain about the defense this season and that has continued with this four game winning streak.

The Rangers have been playing much better in all facets of the game and that is why they are still in first place in the AL West and are increasing their lead over the Houston Astros. The challenge does not get any easier as the team still has two more games against Tampa, three against the Los Angeles Dodgers, three in Houston, and then three in San Diego to wrap up this difficult stretch leading into the August 1st trade deadline.

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