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Well, we're here. The final series for the Cleveland Indians before they put away those Indians jerseys forever. The series means nothing to either team except maybe the Indians, who can at least finish at .500 if they sweep.
The Rangers are 59-100 so no chance of them avoiding a 100-loss season. However, they are not that bad at home. They're only 8 games under .500 in Arlington against 33 under on the road. They've also won four of six, so it would be a mistake to think this team totally sucks right now.
For the season they are last in the A.L. in scoring at a paltry 3.85 runs per game. This has always been a hitters' ballpark and the Rangers have traditionally been a high scoring but bad pitching team, but not this year. Their offense is awful and the pitching is not much better, ranking 13th in ERA. But they have been competitive at home.
Tonight Eli Morgan goes against 25-year-old right-hander Spencer Howard, 0-4, 7.04. His career record in three years is 1-6, 6.65. Howard came over from the Phillies in mid-season and in 17.2 innings with the Rangers has allowed 18 earned runs. Wow.
Left-handed hitters are batting only .220 against him but righties are lighting him up at .320/.881. He must throw something that moves down and away against lefties. The first time through the order batters are hitting .235 but the second time they see him it jumps to .364. His longest start for the Rangers has been four innings and 66 pitches.
Morgan is coming off a magnificent 6-inning, 1-hit, scoreless outing against the White Sox. The only hit was a bloop and he struck out Tim Anderson twice and Jose Abreu once. The start before he held the Yankees to 1 run in 6 innings on a homer by Urshela. He's definitely on a roll having beaten Garritt Cole and Lance Lynn in his last two starts.
The Rangers will be easily the weakest hitting team he's faced all year. However, he faced them five weeks ago and gave up 8 hits and 4 runs in 4.1 innings in a 7-3 loss. All four runs were driven in by Nate Lowe who hit a 3-run homer in the first and an RBI double later. Lowe is nothing special, hitting .260/.762, but he's 6-for-12 against the Indians this year, including 5-for-5 in the game Morgan started. Hopefully Eli will watch the tape of that game and make some adjustments.
So the pitching matchup seems to favor the Indians by a huge margin, but whenever that happens it usually goes the other way.
No Franmil again tonight.
The Rangers are 59-100 so no chance of them avoiding a 100-loss season. However, they are not that bad at home. They're only 8 games under .500 in Arlington against 33 under on the road. They've also won four of six, so it would be a mistake to think this team totally sucks right now.
For the season they are last in the A.L. in scoring at a paltry 3.85 runs per game. This has always been a hitters' ballpark and the Rangers have traditionally been a high scoring but bad pitching team, but not this year. Their offense is awful and the pitching is not much better, ranking 13th in ERA. But they have been competitive at home.
Tonight Eli Morgan goes against 25-year-old right-hander Spencer Howard, 0-4, 7.04. His career record in three years is 1-6, 6.65. Howard came over from the Phillies in mid-season and in 17.2 innings with the Rangers has allowed 18 earned runs. Wow.
Left-handed hitters are batting only .220 against him but righties are lighting him up at .320/.881. He must throw something that moves down and away against lefties. The first time through the order batters are hitting .235 but the second time they see him it jumps to .364. His longest start for the Rangers has been four innings and 66 pitches.
Morgan is coming off a magnificent 6-inning, 1-hit, scoreless outing against the White Sox. The only hit was a bloop and he struck out Tim Anderson twice and Jose Abreu once. The start before he held the Yankees to 1 run in 6 innings on a homer by Urshela. He's definitely on a roll having beaten Garritt Cole and Lance Lynn in his last two starts.
The Rangers will be easily the weakest hitting team he's faced all year. However, he faced them five weeks ago and gave up 8 hits and 4 runs in 4.1 innings in a 7-3 loss. All four runs were driven in by Nate Lowe who hit a 3-run homer in the first and an RBI double later. Lowe is nothing special, hitting .260/.762, but he's 6-for-12 against the Indians this year, including 5-for-5 in the game Morgan started. Hopefully Eli will watch the tape of that game and make some adjustments.
So the pitching matchup seems to favor the Indians by a huge margin, but whenever that happens it usually goes the other way.
No Franmil again tonight.
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