Fear the ‘stache. Cole Hamels threw 7.1 dominating innings against Kansas City, giving up just four hits and no runs.
The Rangers incredible undefeated season continues with a dominating shutout victory over the winless Kansas City Royals, 1-0, in Kaufman Stadium.
The Royals are now the new Astros, the Rangers Free Parking/Guaranteed Win/ Patsy team, having defeated Kansas City twelve games in a row.
Texas pitching continued its early season domination, dropping its team ERA to 1.50, best in baseball. Rangers pitching has given up the fewest home runs in the American League, and the second fewest walks.
The Rangers bullpen has been as good as advertised in the pre-season, having yet to surrender a hit, or even a single baserunner. Alex Claudio is leading the league in saves, having registered a save in every game the Rangers have played thus far this season.
To say Texas’s pitching staff is the reason this team is undefeated and comfortably ensconced in first place in the West and charging toward its third straight division crown is an understatement.
The bats, on the other hand, have yet to show up this season. Texas is hitting just .188 as a team, tenth in the American League in runs scored.
Carlos Gomez is leading the way, batting .500, with an OPS of 1.071. Mike Napoli is hot on Gomez’s heals, having what is shaping up to be another All-Star-calibre season, hitting .400 and tied for the Rangers lead in home runs, second in RBIs. He is tied for the league lead in triples, too. Who would have thought that?
In the final year of his contract, catcher Jonathan Lucroy is positioning himself for a nice fat raise, hitting .333.
As always, Adrian Beltre leads the team in RBIs.
On the other end of the spectrum, seven Rangers are having trouble getting going, hitting well under .200. Mazara, Andrus, and Choo are in the low .100s, while DeShields, Gallo, Odor, and rookie Drew Robinson have yet to get a hit. But the season is young. Look for Odor to get out of the gate strong, as he always does, and have a monster season. Let’s hope Elvis doesn’t prove last year was just a fluke.
So, the undefeated Texas Rangers take their perfect record into Kansas City with ace and perennial All-Star Yu Darvish on the mound today for his first start of the season.
With Darvish toeing the rubber, the odds are great that this incredible start to this incredible season will continue. For how long is anybody’s guess. But as the saying goes, you can’t win them all if you don’t win the first two.
With yesterday’s victory, the Rangers magic number is now down to just 79.
*****
TODAY’S GAME:
Yu Darvish (0-0, -.–) vs. Ian Kennedy (0-0, -.–)
Game time: 1:15
How the Rangers hit against Kennedy.
How the Royals hit against Darvish.