‘Funky’ Rangers reliever Grant Anderson shines in MLB debut as offense mashes Tigers
DETROIT – They may not be the 1927 Yankees, but look, it’s getting harder and harder to tell them apart.
As the Rangers reached the one-third point of a season unlike any other in the franchise’s often-cursed history, they walloped Detroit, 10-6 on Tuesday, thanks to an ever-grinding offense and an otherworldly debut by a funky rookie reliever. More on Grant Anderson, who got clobbered in a post-game celebration with almost as many substances (beer, water, and shaving cream) as he throws pitches (four, to be precise).
But, first, a quick inventory of where this team stands:
--The Rangers’ 35-19 start is the single best 54-game record in club history.
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--With one game remaining on a nine-game trip – and in May – the Rangers are 13-5 in road games this month. It ties the club record for most road wins in a month, set in August 2013.
--They have scored 344 runs, tied for the 21st most in the first 54 games of a season since 1901, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
--And they have a +132 run differential, tied with those ‘27 Yankees and their “Murders’ Row” lineup for the sixth-best run differential through 54 games since 1901. The 1932 Yankees, which like the ‘27 team featured both Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, also outscored opponents by 132 runs. Every one of the 12 teams that has scored at least 300 runs and outscored opponents by 125 or more through 54 games has won its league’s pennant.
You can talk about “regression” all you want, but the Rangers are keeping pace with some historically good teams.
“When you win, everybody is confident,” said Jonah Heim, who drove in runs in three different innings. “This has been manifesting since day one of spring training when [manager Bruce Bochy] said: ‘We are going to be a championship team and we are going to act like it’.”
Said Bochy: “It’s a very good team.”
For most of the season they’ve also been a very good team with an identifiable problem - a bullpen that was unreliable in close games. On Tuesday, they got promising returns from their first attempt to infuse the bullpen with new blood: Anderson.
While there are some harder throwers in the system, the Rangers have been impressed by the 25-year old’s fastball-slider combination, a herky-jerky delivery and a fastball that appears to be on a jet stream moving up to the batter’s eyes. He had struck out 40.5% of the hitters he faced in the minor leagues this season and had been used in two-inning increments over the last month at Triple-A Round Rock. He’d shown poise and command.
Bochy couldn’t wait to use his new toy. He brought him in after Martín Pérez struggled to hold an early lead. Your typical low-leverage debut: He entered in a one-run game with the tying run on second in the fifth inning. Pitching with his parents, wife, two siblings, a niece, and a nephew in the stands, his first two pitches to pinch hitter Zach McKinstry both missed high.
“My heart was beating pretty fast,” Anderson said afterward, the hints of a shaving cream attack still in his freshly done braids. “But I was able to get it back down. I just wanted to execute.”
And he did. He got the fastball down and came back to strike out McKinstry to end the inning. In between innings, he mentioned to Heim that, oh, by the way, he has a splitter, too, if needed, against lefties. Good to know.
Then he came back out and struck out Jake Rogers to start the sixth. Then Akil Baddoo. And Javier Baez. He became only the second Rangers’ reliever to strike out the first four hitters in his MLB debut: Neftali Feliz being the first.
But wait, there’s more. After the Rangers scored two in the top of the seventh, he used the splitter for a key strike against lefty Nick Maton, then got a liner to center. Two more strikeouts followed. And, yet he still wasn’t done. Struck out Jonathan Schoop on a sinker to start the eighth. Future Hall of Famer Miguel Cabrera finally got to him, winning an eight-pitch at-bat that included some weak fouls on funky-moving sliders, sinkers, and fastballs. Cabrera’s single kept Anderson from his eighth strikeout, which, according to Baseball-Reference.com, would have tied for the most by any reliever in an MLB debut. Guess, you can’t have everything.
“It looked like he was on a mission out there,” Bochy said when asked what possessed him to bring in the rookie in such a high-leverage situation. “We needed a shot in the arm. We didn’t bring him up here to mop up. He’s got velocity, movement and a tough look about him. He’s got a plan.”
Said Heim: “He’s kind of got an ‘up-shoot’ to his stuff. It looks like it’s going up, but it’s not. It’s definitely funky.”
The Rangers brought the funky Tuesday. It’s making them look more and more like a team for the ages.
What a differential
With the Rangers’ 10-6 win over Detroit on Tuesday, Texas improved its run differential to 132 runs over opponents as the first third of the season came to a close. The largest run differentials over 54 games since MLB went to a 162-game schedule in 1961, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
Team Year Differential Record Finish Ultimate outcome Los Angeles Dodgers 1974 134 39-15 102-60 NL Champions Texas Rangers 2023 132 35-19 TBD TBD Cincinnati Reds 1976 128 34-20 102-60 World Champions
Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant
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Source: The Dallas Morning News
