Bullpen Thriving For Surging Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers bullpen is tied for the third-best ERA in baseball.

The offense was obvious story as the Texas Rangers blitzed the Kansas City Royals again, winning 12-3 on Wednesday.

The nine-run victory catapulted the Rangers to their fourth straight win.

But don’t forget about the bullpen, which was stellar once again.

Martín Pérez gave up eight hits and three earned runs with three strikeouts and no runs in 5 2/3 innings. Perez has tossed at least five innings in 34 consecutive starts, the longest streak ever by a Rangers left-hander.

When Perez was lifted, the bullpen took care of the rest.

Jonathan Hernandez threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings, Jose Leclerc gave up one hit in one scoreless inning and Josh Sborz finished the job with two strikeouts and no hits allowed in the ninth.

"Our long guys came through and so did our role players," Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. "That’s how you have success over a long season."

After the 5-1 road trip though the Houston Astros and Royals. the Rangers' bullpen ERA of 2.71 is tied with the Atlanta Braves for the third best in baseball going into Thursday.

Cole Ragans and Dane Dunning – not exactly All-Star caliber names – have provided huge lifts in recent games. Dunning hasn't allowed a run in 15 1/3 innings, while Ragans has a 2.00 ERA.

“They’re really our unsung heroes," Bochy said of Ragans and Dunning recently on 105.3 The Fan. "I mean when you look at this road trip and what's happened we haven’t had a starter go six innings (until Nathan Eovaldi did on Tuesday), two of them because of injuries.

"You know that's a lot of innings to eat up and what those guys have done, not just give us innings, but give us quality innings and keep the bullpen in order."

During the course of a 162-game season, especially when you haven’t reached the playoffs in six straight years, the bullpen is going to be taxed at some point. There’s no getting around that.

What the Rangers bullpen has proven thus far is that it’s capable of stepping up. If the bullpen can continue to excel at this high level, a postseason appearance could be very likely.

As of now, the American League West-leading Rangers are 12-6 and off to their best 18-game start since having the same record in 2013.

“Just a terrific series and road trip,” Bochy said. “It’s a god one to go home on. It was fun watching these guys.”

Especially the bullpen.

The starting pitching, anchored by Jacob deGrom, received plenty of accolades heading into the regular season.

But these unsung heroes in the bullpen have been a pleasant surprise through 18 games.

Texas returns home to for a three-game series starting Friday night with the Oakland Athletics. First pitch from Globe Life Field is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. with Jon Gray (1-1, 3.21) on the hill for the Rangers.

The Rangers are also wearing their new Nike City Connect uniforms for the first two games of the series. 

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