Five thoughts: Rangers sweep Rays to win AL Wild Card Series, march on to Baltimore

By Evan Grant

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – Here are five immediate thoughts from the Rangers’ 7-1 win over Tampa Bay on Wednesday to clinch the AL Wild Card Series.

The Rangers swept the best-of-three series. They head to Baltimore to start the AL Division Series on Saturday against the Orioles. The first two games will be in Baltimore with Games 3 and 4, if necessary, in Arlington. Game times will be announced later. Game 5, if necessary, would be in Baltimore.

Nate the great: Nathan Eovaldi pitched six scoreless innings before allowing a two-out, run-scoring single in the seventh. It was Eovaldi’s first quality start since July 18, also against Tampa Bay. The rotation did heavy lifting in the Wild Card series, running through 13.2 scoreless innings and taking the middle of the bullpen out of it.

The work also allows the Rangers to forego having to worry about cobbling together a pitching plan for a Game 3 that would have called for either going to Dane Dunning on three days’ rest for the second consecutive start or turning to lefties Andrew Heaney or Martín Perez. Instead, Dunning will be in perfect shape to start Game 1 of the AL Division Series with Jordan Montgomery and Eovaldi to follow, on regular rest.

Legendary: With his fourth-inning homer, Evan Carter, at 21 years and 36 days old, became the 11th youngest player to ever homer in a postseason game. Usually, we limit such notes to the top 10, but it’s a mostly fabulous bunch led by Andruw Jones (19, 177), Bryce Harper (19, 362), Manny Machado (20, 96), Miguel Cabrera (20, 172) and Mickey Mantle (20, 352). He’s in really fancy company.

Carter reached all four times in Game 1 on a pair of walks and a pair of doubles, then walked in his first plate appearance in Game 2 before the homer. When Carter struck out in the sixth, it ended a streak of six consecutive times reaching base to begin his postseason career. The Rangers had such high hopes for Carter and he’s surpassing all of them.

The only player to reach base more times consecutively to start a postseason career: the Chicago Cubs’ Jorge Soler in 2016.

Drought over: It seemed impossible that a short series, even one as short as a best-of-three, could go by without high-energy, high-adrenaline players like Adolis García and Randy Arozarena making a big impact somewhere along the line. They are close friends and have an intense friendly rivalry.

“I see what you are seeing,” Bruce Bochy said when The Dallas Morning News posed that theory to him. “There’s obviously a very close connection there. They are both great players. So, it wouldn’t surprise any of us with the talent that these two have.”

Well, García struck first. His homer on a cutter to lead off the fourth got the Rangers offense started. It was the Rangers’ first homer in 44 innings, ending a season-long drought. Before the end of the inning, the Legend of Evan Carter had homered, too. And the Rangers led 3-0.

The Rangers feed off García homers. They were 25-9 during the regular season when he homered.

Streakly speaking: Speaking of streaks, who says Tropicana Field is a dump? It’s a beautiful site to the Rangers’ eyes in the postseason. They’ve won all seven games they’ve played there over three different seasons – with three champagne celebrations following series clinchers. It’s been the sweetest home for the Rangers.

You’re unpredictable: We’ve spent the last two months detailing the unpredictable nature of the Rangers. Maybe no better stat to sum it up than this: At 40-41, the Rangers had the second-worst road record of any club in the 12-team playoff field. They swept the Rays, who at 53-28, had tied the Los Angeles Dodgers for the best home record in the majors.

You can’t predict baseball. And certainly not this Rangers team. They march on to Baltimore.

On X/Twitter: @Evan_P_Grant

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.