Rangers star needs to put emotional reunion aside and play stopper instead

It only took Texas Rangers Merrill Kelly three starts to come face-to-face with his old team and with it still so fresh there can be danger in emotions during a playoff race that we are sure he'd like to avoid.

Kelly is set to close out the Rangers' three-game set against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday with his former rotation mate Zac Gallen the arm in the opposing dugout after being traded by Arizona at the trade deadline.

No doubt that emotions are going to run high for Kelly, but the task remains to get Texas a win to close out the home stand.

Merrill Kelly's challenge will be to regulate emotions and get Rangers a win

Kelly has only known the Diamondbacks in MLB up until being traded to Texas on July 31. He made his big league debut with the team in 2019 and was a constant fixture in the D-backs rotation ever since. Kelly made 162 starts, he recorded a 62-50 record in 953 innings of work.

And for all those years, Gallen and him were not only the team's 1-2 punch but also good friends. They will now go head-to-head for the first time in their MLB careers.

Texas is in an important final stretch of the year and every game is important. After splitting the first two games of the series, they have a shot to win the series, remain over .500 and continue to stay in a hot American League postseason race.

Whether Kelly is 100% comfortable with his trade to Texas or not, he's still a competitor and wants to be in the playoffs no matter what. He also wants to establish himself as a big game pitcher as he is about to enter free agency at the end of the year.

We've seen Kelly in a Rangers' uniform for two games since the trade. One was good and one was not good. I am sure the righty wants to get back on track and the Rangers want to see the player they traded four minor leaguers help get them back to the postseason.