The Rangers are coming off sweeps at the hands of the Brewers and the Diamondbacks. They are struggling on offense to do anything, and defensively they are committing too many errors.
The only positive has been the starting pitching has been decent, bullpen not so much. With both the Astros and Mariners within a game of the Rangers, now is the time to snap this 6 game skid they find themselves in.
The Twins are in first place in the American League Central, but the Rangers have been the better team in 2023 up until the last week or so. Lets look ahead to the series between the Rangers and the Twins.
Game 1 – Andrew Heaney (9-6, 4.27 ERA) vs Pablo Lopez (9-6, 3.51 ERA)
Heaney has been either great or a disaster in 2023 for the Rangers. He is 4-0 with a 3.09 ERA in his last 7 starts, so he has been mostly good. His past two outings have been very short, 1.1 innings and 3.2 innings.
Lopez is 4-1 with a 2.53 ERA in his past 7 starts, including going 6, 6, and 7 innings in his last three. The Rangers bats need to get started early against Lopez if they want to score on him. He does not give up a ton of runs.
Adolis Garcia, Jonah Heim and Ezequiel Duran have had some success against Lopez, Garcia has taken him deep in 3 at bats against him.
Carlos Correa is the only Twin with limited success against Heaney.
Game 2 – Dane Dunning (9-5, 3.19 ERA) vs Sonny Gray (6-6, 3.15 ERA)
Dunning has been very good for the Rangers in 2023, both out of the pen and in the rotation. His last 7 starts he is 1-3 with a 3.98 ERA, and he gave up 3 earned runs in his last start.
Gray is 2-3 with a 3.74 ERA in his last 7 starts, and he gave up 4 earned runs in his last start against the Pirates.
Believe it or not Austin Hedges has taken Gray deep twice and has a .333 BA against Gray.
Correa has taken Dunning deep and has a .333 ba against him.
After this short break we will look at games 3 and 4 of the series. This is the Ranger Report Podcast Series Preview: Rangers vs Twins on the Fans First Sports Network
Game 3 – Max Scherzer (12-5, 3.77 ERA) vs TBD
Scherzer is coming off his worst start as a Rangers, even though it wasnt that bad. He gave up 3 earned runs but he walked 4, which was the main problem. He also only lasted 3.2 innings. I look for him to bounce back and control this game.
No one on the Twins current lineup has faced Scherzer more than 6 times, and Farmer is the only one that has taken him deep (once).
Game 4 – Jordan Montgomery (8-10, 3.12 ERA) vs TBD
Montgomery is coming off arguably his best start in a Rangers uniform going 8 innings and giving up no runs. He is 2-1 with a 1.73 ERA in his last 7 starts.
The Twins lineup has seen Montgomery a few times over the years, with Correa having 10 at bats and Christian Vazquez having 24 at bats and 3 long balls off of him.
The Texas Rangers really need a bounce back series here, and hopefully they can find that magic offense again in Minnesota.
If you haven’t checked out our last episode go check it out. We went live on spaces and took questions and talked about the Rangers slump. Also be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and check us out on Facebook and Instagram as well as X Twitter. Thanks for listening.