The Texas Rangers believed they had a championship team when they left spring training and nothing has changed as they prepare for the second half of the season.
Despite a July swoon that has been led by poor starting pitching, the Rangers will start the second half with the most wins in the American League and a 5 1/2 game lead over Houston in the American League West. It’s the largest lead the club has had at the All-Star break in club history.
They still carry very lofty expectations despite being losers of seven of their final nine games before the break.
“We want to finish what we start,” Texas third baseman Adrian Beltre said. “We want to stay healthy, play good ball and do the little things to win ballgames. We want to keep our eyes on the prize.”
Getting better starting pitching will be key and that will depend on getting healthy. A Texas rotation that ended the first half with nine straight starts from the rotation of five innings or less is without rotation members Yu Darvish, Colby Lewis and Derek Holland. Darvish could join the rotation for the second-half opening series in Chicago. But the club will have to make it without Holland and Lewis until August and try and turn around a pitching staff that has allowed 85 runs in the last nine games.
If the club can stay afloat until then, the prize Beltre talked about it a possibility. But the remaining rotation members or a starter from outside the organization is going to have to step up as Texas entered the break with the rotation having a 10.50 ERA over the final nine games.
“It’s obviously a challenge,” Texas manager Jeff Banister said. “We go as our starters go. When we get quality starts, it’s proven, has been all year long that when we get quality starts our offense gives us an opportunity to win baseball game.”
The starting pitching was solid before the injuries as was the offense. Centerfielder Ian Desmond is having an MVP-caliber season while outfielder Nomar Mazara and shortstop Elvis Andrus have been steady.
If the club doesn’t turn things around with the rotation, the offense will have to continue to hit. Beltre doesn’t think that will be a problem. But the break won’t hurt as the Rangers look to regroup.
“There’s always space for improvement,” Beltre said. “We felt like we could have done better, but we’ve gone through a stretch where we didn’t perform. We understand there are going to be highs and lows. We’re going to get some rest and come back and finish strong.”