The Texas Rangers execute a superb first inning to get a jump on the Houston Astros, the team standing between them and the AL West lead.
From both an artistic and mechanical standpoint, the Texas Rangers first inning in their 5-0 victory over Houston Thursday night was a brilliant success.
In the opening inning of the debut game to the season’s second half, the Rangers sent 10 men to the plate and scored four runs on four hits. They knocked Astros starter Framber Valdez from the game after just two outs. That was the artistic success.
But artistry only gets you so far. This was, for several reasons, a game the Texas Rangers pretty much had to win. First, they begin the second half trailing Houston by nine games in the AL West, but play the Astros seven of their next nine games.
They are also three games behind Cleveland in the wild card race. Finally, they sent their ace, 11-game winner Lance Lynn, out against Valdez, who was in the minors until a few hours ago. If you trail your in-state rival by nine games, play them seven times in the next 10 days, and send out your ace against a minor leaguer, you need to send a message.
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The mechanical success was the way they went about taking command of the game in that four-run first. It was not with the stereotypical power game the Texas Rangers and most every other MLB team have been famous for this year. Those four Texas hits carried an average exit velocity of only 82.7 mph, and only two left the infield with any force at all.
But they were accompanied by three bases on balls and supplemented with almost flawless swing execution. That, in total, was the mechanical success.
Leadoff batter Shin-Soo Choo set the stage by challenging Valdez to demonstrate that he was ready, willing and able to throw the ball over the plate. That’s been an issue for Valdez in his sporadic previous starts; he’s issued 19 bases on balls in 45 innings of work, a major influence on his 4.57 ERA.
What Choo demonstrated was that, indeed, Valdez was not confident around the strike zone. As a result, he drew a five-pitch walk without ever swinging his bat. That should have sent, and apparently did send, a couple of vital messages to the Ranger lineup: Make Valdez throw the ball over the plate, and attack it when he does.
For the ensuing eight batters that Valdez faced, he never got a single Ranger hitter to swing at a pitch off the plate.
Across the plate was a different story. Valdez started outfielder Delino DeShields with a curve but laid it knee-high in the center of the zone. If the Astros scouting reports are worth anything, they told Valdez that is the absolute worst place to pitch DeShields, who produces a 91 mph exit velocity on low-center cut pitches.
Deshields didn’t get 91 mph worth of that pitch, but he got enough to bounce a 76.2 mph ground ball past Yuli Gurriel into left field for a double that pushed Choo to third.
One out later, Valdez faced Nomar Mazara with those same runners at second and third. If there is a place not to pitch Mazara, it is the obvious one, thigh-high over the heart of the plate. Balls exit his bat at an average velocity of 99.2 mph from that locale. That’s exactly where Valdez threw the ball.
It is axiomatic in baseball that not every bad pitch is driven deep. Sometimes pitchers get lucky and saw batters off with mistakes. That’s what happened with the pitch to Mazzara, which shattered his bat, sending the ball creeping toward Jose Altuve at second.
But it is also axiomatic, in baseball and life generally, that karma is a cruel mistress. Thus was Valdez made to pay for his location error; Mazzara beat out that 43.9 mph dribbler that left Altuve with no play while Choo scored and DeShields took third base.
Joey Gallo was next. Valdez threw him a low-center fastball. It was another mistake; Gallo exits that locale at an average of 100.9 mph. His hot grounder beat Altuve and kicked into right field for a double, DeShields scoring and Mazzara taking third.
Valdez registered his second out on a ground ball that left runners at second and third for Rougned Odor. You have to pitch Odor tight. Instead, Valdez strayed to the middle of the strike zone again, and Odor turned it around for a 111.5 mph two-RBI double off the right-field wall.
When Valdez then shied away from the center of the plate, he missed it entirely, walking Asdrubal Cabrera on five pitches and Jeff Mathis on four. Those four were the final pitches Valdez threw all night.
It was a brilliant rally, in part due to its timing, and in part due to the necessity of winning the game. But more than any of that it was brilliant because of the way the Rangers executed it. Without relying on the long ball, they made Valdez show his hesitancy to command the plate, then they relentlessly used that hesitancy against him. They never swung at a bad pitch and they attacked every good one. If they play baseball that efficiently most of the second half, the Texas Rangers cannot be counted out.