ARLINGTON, Texas – In a nod to great pitching slogans of history, we can finally give one to the Rangers of 2022:
Pérez and Gray and Look Away.
Spahn and Sain and Pray For Rain, it may not be, but, hey, at least it’s accurate.
On Wednesday, after two nights of plowing through bullpen like it was farmland, the Rangers needed Jon Gray to restore some order to things. Gray responded by smothering Oakland with devastating sliders for seven shutout innings in a 5-2 win. Next up: All-Star Martín Pérez to open the first-half-ending series against the hottest team in baseball, Seattle. The Mariners have won 10 straight.
“We feel like we are going to win every time those guys go out there,” Rangers manager Chris Woodward said. “They’ve kept us afloat. Yes, we’re facing Seattle and they’ve been hot. But they’ve got to face Martín.”
Since May 1, the Rangers have won 21 of the 27 games started by the Pérez-Gray duo. They have a combined 2.99 ERA in that stretch. What comes after them: Best not to ask. The Rangers are still searching. But more than just giving the Rangers a chance to win, Pérez and Gray have eaten innings and allowed the bullpen to catch its breath after working hard three consecutive days. Lately the bullpen has shown wear and tear. That made the game a little dicey in the ninth.
With Matt Bush pitching the eighth, the Rangers took a one-hitter to the ninth. José Leclerc, who figured in the last Rangers’ one-hitter, back in 2018, allowed a homer to Skye Bolt on the first pitch.
Leclerc also allowed a two-out homer to Ramon Laureano, further underscoring just how important it had been to not get the bullpen involved earlier and forced manager Chris Woodward to turn to Garrett Richards to face the potential tying run and get the final out. At least Richards cleaned up the mess, getting Steven Vogt to fly out on the first pitch.
Until the ninth, though: What a gem. The only hit – rather the only Oakland baserunner – came on a bouncing ball up the middle by Vimael Machín to start the fourth. Marcus Semien, playing short while Corey Seager DH’d, flagged it down behind second base on the run, but could not scoop it up to make a play.
Gray performed his half of the Rangers’ dynamic pitching act in style, throwing a season-high 46 sliders, according to MLB’s Statcast, and getting eight of his nine strikeouts on the pitch. He did not allow a walk. The last time somebody put up a similar line was when Yu Darvish flirted with a perfect game at Houston at the start of 2013. Oh, those were the good ol’ days.
“He was absolutely dominant,” Woodward said of Gray. “I went back to look at how many hard hit balls there were and there really weren’t any of those. The cool thing was he finished dominant, too.”
Gray came up short of going after his first shutout and complete game since 2016. But that was probably a foregone conclusion from the start. Though he struck out two of the three hitters in the first, he ended up having to throw 21 pitches. He threw only 74 over the next six innings, finishing at 95. He’s not thrown more than 102 this season.
“It was a little was a little sketchy at first,” Gray said. “I was kind of missing up with it early, but luckily, it worked out for us in the first inning. After that, I started to get a feel for it and we were expanding lower and away with it and it just got better and better.”
