Wait a second. Is this the Rangers?

All this optimistic talk about pitching. This cannot possibly be the Rangers.

Nathan Eovaldi is pitching pain free and hitting 99 miles per hour. Dane Dunning threw five scoreless innings. Jacob deGrom actually pitched.

Eovaldi and deGrom are heading up the rotation. Dunning seems to be pitching for trade value. There’s no place for him, even if this is for real. Not with Andrew Heaney, Martin Perez, and Jon Gray ahead of him. Not to mention Cole Ragans and Glenn Otto.

But Dunning has upside, and with upside comes someone always willing to take a shot on him. Package Dunning with another prospect and the Rangers can get a really good left fielder or center fielder.

Of course, there’s the school of thought that you can never have too much pitching. The Rangers organization has never attended that school. They have never had any pitching, let alone too much. But that seems to have changed.

And it’s hard to believe. This is the Rangers, right? The Texas Rangers?

Rangers and pitching have never been used in the same sentence, unless the words “devoid of” were in front of pitching.

*****

TODAY’S GAME:

Texas vs Los Angeles Angels, 3:10