Rangers rotation snapping this hot-streak proves that a turnaround isn't on the horizon

Granted, it was mostly against the offensively challenged Kansas City Royals, but the Rangers' starting staff was on quite a roll through four games as they vie to get back to .500 on the season.

But as has been the case with the product on the field for the lion's share of the time since the World Series campaign of 2023, it doesn't last, and eventually the team regresses back to the mean.

Starting on May 29 in the first game of a three-game set against the Royals, MacKenzie Gore started an extended scoreless streak from the team's starting staff. Gore went 6.1 shutout innings in a 9-1 win, Kumar Rocker followed that up with six more scoreless frames. Then it was Jack Leiter who delivered 5.2 innings of shutout baseball. Finally, staff ace Jacob deGrom contributed 5 more innings without allowing a run.

After an extended scoreless streak from the starting staff, Rangers starters have come back to Earth

The starters went 23 straight innings without allowing a single run to cross home plate as the Rangers won all four of the games during that streak. It was an impressive stretch, but you have to include the asterisk that it occurred primarily against a Kansas City team that is struggling badly to score this year.

deGrom held the Cardinals down in the first game of the road trip, but then the wheels kind of came off. Nathan Eovaldi continued his rollercoaster season, giving up 11 hits and 4 runs over six innings. Then it was Gore, the guy who started the scoreless streak, who looked lost the next game, allowing nine hits and three walks in 4.2 innings in a ho-hum 5-3 loss in the series finale. He needed 97 pitches and still couldn't get through five innings.

Naturally, the Rangers' starters weren't going to continue at such a phenomenal rate, but instead of a soft landing, it was more like an anvil thud back to reality. The fact remains that this rotation has been inconsistent all year long.

Kumar Rocker gets the start on Friday, and he is much better at Globe Life than on the road, and that proved to be the case. At least for the most part. After Cleveland's rookie phenom, Travis Bazzana, jumped on Rocker early with a lead-off homer, the righty settled down.

It wasn't a flawless effort, but Rocker worked in and out of trouble all night, allowing just two runs in total over five innings. Thanks to the bullpen shutting down the Guardians after Rocker left, the effort proved to be enough for Texas to secure the victory.

Big picture, the Rangers' rotation hasn't been a disaster with a 10th-ranked 3.98 starters' ERA, but given the level of investment, the hope was that the results would look closer to last year's league-leading performance. The four-game scoreless streak gave us hope that a transition was coming, but we've seen now that it isn't the case.

Having a real strength to hang their hats on would be a huge boost to the Rangers' playoff hopes, but for now, we're left waiting for something to break and allow the club to exercise real strength.

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