Dallas Keuchel didn’t find it last night.

He might never find it again.

He won the Cy Young in 2015 with Houston. He finished fifth in Cy Young voting in 2020 with the White Sox when he put up a 1.99 ERA.

He was one of baseball’s best pitchers for about six years.

But like most everything in the world, he hasn’t been the same since 2020.

He put up a 5.28 ERA in 2021 where he WHIP jumped from 1.089 the previous season to 1.531.

After eight starts with the White Sox this season, they made the painful decision to release him. He’s a guy you want to root for. But they have playoff expectations and his 2-5 record and 7.88 ERA wasn’t going to get them there.

So, Arizona picked him up. In four starts, he was worse, 0-2 with an 11.81 ERA. The Diamondbacks had no playoff expectations but they did expect a much better pitcher than that. They released him.

Along came the Rangers, the Lady Liberty of bad pitching. Give us you poor, give us your tired, your troubled arms yearning to let in runs.

Keuchel was called up to start yesterday’s game against Detroit. He got into the sixth, giving up seven earned runs. He struck out just one Tiger hitter. They feasted on most of his other offerings.

In the end, the Rangers lost 11-2. And Keuchel will see if he can figure out how to get back to the 2015 version of himself in his next start.

The Rangers have nothing to lose trying to see if Keuchel has anything left in the tanks. A nine-run loss is every bit as much of a loss as a one-run loss.

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