Bruce Bochy Expected This From Texas Rangers

Most of the baseball world may be surprised by the first-place Texas Rangers, but Bruce Bochy is not.

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers have played roughly a quarter of the season. They’re in first place in the American League West.

Encouraged? Surprised? Stunned? After all, the Rangers haven’t had a winning season since 2016.

Ask manager Bruce Bochy the same question and he doesn’t use any of those words.

“This is close to what I was hoping,” Bochy said. “I wanted us to get off to a good start. I thought that was important. So it’s pretty close to what I was hoping.”

The Rangers (26-17) enter Friday’s series opener with the Colorado Rockies with a two-game lead in the American League West over the Houston Astros. The last time the Rangers were 26-17 after 43 games was in 2012. Texas has the fifth-best winning percentage in the Majors.

The Rangers spent the off-season retooling its starting rotation, signing Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi and Andrew Heaney, and re-signing Martín Pérez. It’s largely worked, even as deGrom has spent nearly a month on the injured list.

The rotation was a liability last season outside of Friday’s starter Pérez (4-1) and Jon Gray (3-1), who missed more than two months due to injury. The Rangers have quality starts in nine of their last 12 games and a sub-4.00 ERA. Eovaldi (5-2) has been fantastic, even though his scoreless inning streak ended at 29 2/3 innings on Wednesday.

The staff’s 21 quality starts are among the best in the American League.

This was the impact the Rangers were hoping for, even in deGrom’s absence. And, by the way, Dane Dunning has been a great fill-in, something Bochy points out.

“We had Dane Dunning step into the rotation and he’s pitched very well,” Bochy said. “You have to have that because you’re going to have guys that need time due to injuries and that’s when depth becomes so important.”

The depth has been important offensively as the Rangers were without shortstop Corey Seager for a month before he returned from a hamstring injury Wednesday.

Right fielder Adolis García was an American League Player of the Week in April and third baseman Josh Jung was the AL Rookie of the Month for April. The team is second in the league in both runs scored (266) and runs per game (6.18).

The Rangers are the best in baseball in hitting with runners in scoring position, batting better than .330. The Rangers are also the only team in the Majors with at least five players with at least 24 runs scored and 24 RBI.

The bullpen is shaky, and Bochy and the Rangers know it. Will Smith has stabilized the closer role, but several pitchers are trying to work through inconsistency. Eventually, that could come back to bite the Rangers.

But, heading into this weekend, Bochy is happy with where the Rangers are at. They’ve met his expectations, even if they’ve surprised others.

“I think if you had told me that we were going to lose some key players like we did, then I’m really happy with where we’re at,” Bochy said.

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You can find Matthew Postins on Twitter @PostinsPostcard.

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