Texas Lonesome

The Texas Rangers have been a very frustrating team to roll for in my 1978 A.L. Replay. As most of my readers know by now, my brother Chris and I, have been replaying the 1978 MLB Season, while he is replaying the N.L. side of the season. You can follow us on the APBA Between the Lines (Delphi Forum) by the handle "Brothers in Dice."

We both have reached June, and have both had our share of surprises this season. The Seattle Mariners were playing above-par, but have recently came back down to earth, as they have lost 6 of their last 7 games & sit at 21-29.

The Rangers started off slow at 8-18 (compared to 14-12) on May 12th, but then they posted off a league-best (tied) 7-game winning streak, until losing their 2nd game of a doubleheader against Seattle on May 19th, they would lose the next day, but bounce back to win two in a row. It should be noted that the real-life Rangers did start off 3-10 (Apr 8th-24th), and the replay Rangers were 5-8 at the point, 2 games ahead of pace.

At the end of May 22nd, the team was 17-20, much better than 10 days ago at that point. They had the Minnesota Twins for 3 more games (on road), Seattle for 2 games at home & 4 more games at home against the Twins again. So everything was pointing in a positive direction, but then everything went wrong...

Texas would go on to lose 7 of their next 9 games, while the Twins own a 6-2 record against the Rangers this season.  

The May 30th game only emphasized the frustration that comes with rolling for the Rangers. After losing the first two games by 1 run each, the Ramgers were looking to rebound in the third game and appeared to be doing just that. After Rangers starter Fergie Jenkins gave up 2 runs in the 1st inning, he recovered by allowing no earned runs (1 run on a Al Oliver) through the next 7 innings to advance to a Grade A-XZZ. The Rangers were leading 4-3 entering the top of the 9th. After the Twins' Rich Chiles grounded out to lead off the inning, the Twins went to their bench and called on Bombo Rivera to pinch-hit for Glenn Adams (who went 0-for-3), and Rivera would go to second-columns to record a double. Butch Wynegar followed by drawing a walk. With runners on 1st & 2nd, Rob Wilfong rolls a 15-11 for a RBI game-tying single & stolen base. Next batter after that, Hosken Powell rolls into second-columns and hits a two-run double, which would result in Jenkins exit. Paul Lindblad comes in to relief, gets Rod Carew to fly out for out number two, but would allow a RBI single to Roy Smalley (run was charged to Jenkins). Bases would eventually be loaded up for Chiles who kicked off the inning, but would fly out.

The Rangers surrendered 4 runs in the 9th, giving Jenkins a crooked-number in the boxscore on a game that he was pitching pretty good. This has been a bit of Jenkins story all season, a bad inning here-and-there, while being ate up by the home run ball (8 HR allowed). Jenkins is 2-4 with a 5.53 ERA as of May 30th.

The Rangers currently sit at 18-26 in last place, 10.5 games entering June 2nd. The real-life Rangers were 24-22, 6 games ahead of the replay mark. It's certainly not good, but considering that Jenkins should start pitching much better, and that the Rangers will acquire Johnny Grubb at some point in the summer, while the newly acquired Bobby Bonds is still finding his footing in his new threads, I still have faith that this team could become more competitive, and should get into the division hunt.

Grubb is currently hitting .331 with 6 HR & 32 RBI through 37 games for the 21-24 Cleveland Indians. Grubb ranks 4th in batting average & 4th in OPS (.969) in the American League, while his 32 RBI just missed the top 10.

Although the team is batting only .236, the team is batting nearly 30 points higher than it was during its first 26 games, with players like Jim Sundberg, Juan Beniquez & Richie Zisk heating up. Zisk is among the best hitters in the American League, batting .293 with 13 HR & 35 RBI this season.

Pitcher Jon Matlack has been getting betting run support and has improved his record to 4-6 with a 2.04 ERA & 46 K, to go along with his 5 complete games & 2 shutouts.