A.J. Griffin was having a great season, then he went down with injury. Yu Darvish came back from Tommy John surgery, looked good, then went down with injury. It’s hard to lose two fifths of your rotation, but the Rangers continued to win.
Then today, the Texas Rangers announced that Derek Holland, who was having a dreadful season, was going on the DL. Now three of five were gone. Just as Rangers fans were hearing about Holland, the Texas Rangers told us that Colby Lewis, pitching the best he has ever pitched, has a grade 2 right lat strain and will not be able to throw for two months. Two months! So now it is up to Cole Hamels and Martin Perez to try and continue winning and keep the Rangers in the hunt for October.
Now, the good news is that the Texas Rangers have a very deep minor league system, and Ceasar Ramos, Nick Martinez, Chi Chi Gonzales can step in and be effective, at least in the short term. This is most definitely not the rotation that Rangers fans were dreaming of in February. The Rangers have counted on young fielders like Nomar Mazara, rookie of the months for two straight months, Rougned Odor, Jurickson Profar and Ryan Rua to get the job done, and now it is time to have the young arms do the same. Is it ideal? Of course not. Is it what the Rangers have to work with? Yes. It doesn’t hurt that the Rangers are 46-26 as of today, with a double digit lead in the West.
As a fan of any team, it’s hard to sit back and not panic when starter after starter continues to go down, but this team has shown amazing resilience so far in 2016, and they have truely lived by the mantra “Never Ever Quit”. I honestly do not wxpect this team to continue winning at the blistering pace they have beem winning at, but as was mentioned on this site earlier this week, the arangers just need to go .500 the remainder of the season to finish with 90 wins. And I still believe that is very doable. We just have to swallow the Colby Lewis news and continue to cheer on our team.
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