Odd Man Rush

If you told me before this series started that Dustin Nippert, Matt Harrison, and Warner Madrigal would play pivotal roles in clinching at least a tie thus far, I would have laughed at you. 

I’ll admit, I was pessimistic about this whole thing on Sunday.  For the first time in what seems like 3 or 4 years, baseball analysts were openly looking forward to this series.  I didn’t see it.  The Angels have probably the most dominant closer in baseball right now, and look at the starting matchups:

Ervin Santana vs. Luis Mendoza
Joe Saunders vs. Matt Harrison
Jered Weaver vs. Warner Madrigal
John Lackey vs. Scott Feldman 

This looks like a sweep for the Angels on paper, but the young guys have been getting it done.  They haven’t been doing it in the typical Ranger way, either.  Since when do we win one-run games? 

Here’s the thing.  We can’t do what we did tonight – throw out a random bullpen guy on a pitch count of 50 and hope the rest of the pen can get it done – for the rest of the 70 games on the schedule.  Will the organization decide to develop Warner Madrigal into a starter, a la Joba Chamberlain?  If they do, I hope they are careful.  Madrigal looked good tonight, but he needs some work.  For instance, when he pitches from the stretch, he grips the ball outside of his glove before getting set.  If anybody gets on second base against him, that’s bad news.  He’s got a great fastball, but needs to develop those other pitches.  

I don’t want to minimize tonight’s amazing win, because I’m actually more optimistic about the Rangers than I’ve been in quite a while, but if they’re going to make a run, there’s going to have a be a perfect storm.  Hurley needs to come back from the DL and show some staying power, the rest of the staff have to pitch out of their minds, Josh Hamilton and Ian Kinsler need to keep up their torrid pace, and perhaps Jon Daniels needs to make a trade.  Oh yeah, and the Angels need to stay within striking distance.

Are the Rangers in a position to make the playoffs?  Not yet.  But they’re not out of it yet, either, and we couldn’t say that in July last year.