Lets face it, the Rangers offense is not firing on all cylinders right now. One day it scores eleven runs and the next day it squeaks out two runs. Now I know that the Rangers had a long flight from Anaheim to Minnesota, and they didn’t arrive to Minnesota until the sun was already up, but still, it has been this way for a while. And the thing that has been saving the Rangers during this stretch? Pitching.
Nick Tepesch once again showed Rangers fans that he belongs in a Rangers uniform and not in an Express uniform. He even had a no-hitter going through five innings against a team that has had a better start than people expected. And the pitching all starts with Yu Darvish. He is second in the league in WAR (Wins Above replacement) at 1.5, and he is third in the league with a 1.65 ERA. He is also in the top ten in almost every category that you would want to see a pitcher be top ten in. Nick Tepesch is now second in the league for base on balls per nine innings with 1.266. The Rangers relief core as a whole leads the league in runs scored in relief (2.95), they are second in wins in relief (5), they have only taken one loss in relief, second in the league in saves (8), first in the league with ZERO blown saves, the list goes on and on. And here are some of the ERA’s of Texas’ relief core:
Tanner Scheppers: 0.00 ERA
Robbie Ross: 0.96 ERA
Joe Nathan: 1.08 ERA
Joe Ortiz: 1.42 ERA
The rest is higher, but I thought I would point out that out of seven guys in the bullpen, four of them have a sub-two ERA. Texas’ pitching is doing extremely well at the moment.
So what does all of this tell us? We all know that the starters and relievers cannot keep up this pace for the whole season, right? 
Well, we can hope that it does, but we all know it won’t. And that is where this offense comes into play. They already came back twice against the Angels, even though they lost one of those games. We also know that this offense is not going to be held down for the whole season. It seems like it is taking longer than usual for the offense to get going, but at the moment that is alright because the pitching has been so good and so solid that the offense has been able to take their time getting ready to explode. And explode I believe it will, it is only a matter of time. But it is good to know while we wait for it that our pitching and our defense is there to hold the fort down, as it may be. When this offense does finally get going, watch out American League. This will be a team to be reckoned with. You know, even more than it already is.
Tonight Justin Grimm (1-0, 2.70 ERA) goes up against Scott Diamond (1-1, 4.35 ERA) and it ought to be a good one. Enjoy baseball tonight everyone!
