ARLINGTON – Over the course of a week-long homestand that will come to an end Wednesday, the Rangers have lost four players for the season. And they’ve won four of five games.
What gives? Has the situation become so desperate they are sacrificing players around here?
“We did talk about it,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said with a smile after a 7-3 win over the Los Angeles Angels Tuesday. “But we were thinking more of a staff member.”
Hey, maybe that’s the key. Keep losing bodies and keep piling up wins. Who knows with this team? On Tuesday, only hours after announcing ace Nathan Eovaldi was likely done for the year with a rotator cuff strain, the Rangers got eight shutout innings from Patrick Corbin and three home runs from the offense to throttle the Angels and scrap back to .500 again.
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The night fit with the completely random nature of this team. Corbin hadn’t won a game since July 10, hadn’t gotten through five innings in any of his four August starts and had an 11.48 ERA for the month. The offense delivered a home game with at least three homers for just the fourth time this season; two of them coming in this homestand. The homers came from the usual trio: Corey Seager, who reached 20 for the year for the fourth straight year with the Rangers, Kyle Higashioka, the Orange County native who has torched the Angels this season and Michael Helman, because why not.
With these Rangers, it’s best not to try to explain it, but rather just wait to find out what team is going to show up on what day. If anything, though, the last week has perhaps displayed a bit of resilience that seemed to be lacking for most of the season. Corbin said he didn’t approach the game as a mission to send a message, but rather just an attempt to right his season. Nevertheless, it seemed to do just that, send a message that it is possible to soldier on even without Eovaldi.
“He’s been around the game; he knows our situation,” Bochy said. “I think it says a lot about the man.
I think he just took it upon himself to really give the club a shot in the arm. That’s what really has to happen. When you lose such a big part of your club, especially in a rotation, the guys have to step up. And he did that in a huge way. That’s what’s going to have to happen. You just try to come together, hunker down even more, and find a way to get it done.”
Corbin got help from his defense early and it fueled the Rangers. Third baseman Josh Jung made a diving stop to strand a runner at third in the first. In the bottom of the inning, the Rangers parlayed two walks and three singles into a three-run inning. After that, it allowed Corbin to stay aggressive.
More good defense in the form of a tumbling catch by Adolis García in right and a leaping grab by Helman in center squashed other early Angel opportunities. And the Rangers added on with Helman’s two-run homer in the second and Higashioka’s solo homer in the fourth.
“It’s definitely been a little frustrating not to be able to pitch deep into games lately,” Corbin said. “Location has been off. I thought I was able to do that a lot better today. And with the defense and the offense, I was able to just attack guys more.”
Though Bochy had a reliever up as early as the sixth, Corbin pushed through eight innings, making the performance that much more significant. The Rangers will try to pitch Thursday’s series finale out of the bullpen with Jacob Latz stepping into Eovaldi’s role. Not having to use Shawn Armstrong, Jacob Webb, Hoby Milner or Robert Garcia gives the Rangers a fully-rested and staffed bullpen to try to cobble together another win and complete the homestand at 5-1.
Of course, the Rangers could also try what’s seemed to be working for them lately: Sacrificing another player.
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