The Texas Rangers have announced the rotation for their four-game series against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Texas and Toronto will begin a four-game series at Rogers Centre on April 12 that could decide the wild card picture.
Texas has kept its regular rotation intact, but has made one change to its starting pitching staff. Dane Dunning will start in place of Andrew Heaney in the first game of the four-game set.
Heaney earned the win in relief against the Oakland Athletics on April 11, allowing four hits, one walk and six strikeouts in 3⅔ innings of scoreless relief. Texas defeated Oakland 9-4 on the day, closing to within half a game of the Seattle Mariners for the third AL wild card. They are also just 1.5 games back of second-place Toronto.
Therefore, this four-game series is a must-win for Texas, as they need to take at least a 3-1 series to turn the tide of the season.
Dunning, who began the season in the bullpen, joined the rotation in early May and started 21 games before suffering his worst day of the season on June 6 against the Houston Astros when he gave up four runs on five hits in 1 1/3 innings in relief of Ivaldi, who gave up nine runs on 11 hits in 5 1/3 innings. Dunning has split time between the mound and bullpen this season, going 9-6 with a 3.88 ERA in 30 games.
However, Dunning is a starter. His 3.74 ERA in starts is better than his 4.56 ERA in nine relief appearances. This is why Texas ultimately decided to go with Dunning as the starter and Heaney as the reliever.
The change in starting pitchers for Game 1 was also meant to bolster the bullpen. Heaney was making his first relief appearance of the season against Oakland. In his previous 27 starts, Heaney was 9-6 with a 4.22 ERA, and his last five starts have been particularly unsettling, with four of them failing to make it out of the fifth inning.
When Texas acquired Max Scherzer from the New York Mets and Jordan Montgomery from the St. Louis Cardinals at the trade deadline, there was speculation that Heaney would eventually be removed from the rotation, and that has now come to pass. Texas’ starting rotation for the four-game series will now be Dunning, Scherzer, Montgomery, and Nathan Eovaldi.온라인카지노
Toronto’s lineup to face Texas will be Chris Bassett in Game 1, followed by Hyun-jin Ryu in Game 2, and Yusei Kikuchi and Kevin Gausman in Games 3 and 4. That’s the normal rotation. The second half of the series will feature a matchup between Ryu and Scherzer, who are the de facto aces for both teams. It’s a pivotal matchup that could decide the fate of the four-game series.
Scherzer took the loss against the Houston Astros on April 7, giving up seven runs on six hits, including three home runs, in three innings. It was the most runs Scherzer has allowed in a single game this season. He’ll be looking to redeem himself. In seven games with Texas, he went 3-2 with a 3.63 ERA, 14 walks and 51 strikeouts in 39⅔ innings.
Ryu is 3-2 with a 2.65 ERA in seven games since returning, with eight walks and 28 strikeouts in 34 innings.