Home stretch.
Papiamentu. Dutch. English. Spanish.
Shortstop. Second base. Third base. First base.
They’re all in Jurickson Profar’s bag.
Profar has gone from temporary reinforcement to core weapon in the span of a week and a half. He hasn’t changed. But his stage did, and he’s taken advantage.
That round trip ticket from Round Rock? Surely torn up at this point.
Houston reliever Ken Giles had nothing to say last night, after his Astros dropped their eighth of eight this year against that team that evidently doesn’t have as much talent as his.
Maybe he’s right, but then there’s that pesky exception of when the two teams play in the same baseball game.
Jeff Banister did have something to say about Giles’s day-before comments, telling the press: “Ya know, it’s a great thing. Sometimes gifts are given to you and you have to take advantage of ’em.”
The Rangers have been taking a lot of advantage since the Astros became relevant again.
The last time Houston beat Texas in Arlington was the day George Springer made a miraculous snare of Leonys Martin’s bases-loaded rocket over the right field fence in the bottom of the 10th, four innings after which the Astros won the game, 6-4, handing Rangers right-handed long man Logan Verrett the loss.
Yes, the last time the Astros won a game here, Logan Verrett pitched.
For the Rangers.
That was on April 12, 2015.
In the 12 Arlington match-ups since, Texas has won 12.
If Springer doesn’t make that catch (and even if the ball stays in play), the streak would now sit at 14.
Profar has been on the field for just two of those.
In the Blackie Sherrod tribute I wrote six weeks ago, I said this:
What if even half of Ryan Rua and Ryan Cordell and Andy Ibanez and Travis Demeritte and Ronald Guzman and Pedro Payano and Yohander Mendez and Brett Martin and Connor Sadzeck and David Perez and Jairo Beras and Richelson Pena, each of whom is showing signs of taking that next step, have moved onto those lists other teams’ pro scouts are responsible for keeping? None of them is going to carry a deal (and I don’t mean a Yovani Gallardo-type deal — I mean a Cole Hamels-level deal), but neither could Jerad Eickhoff or Alec Asher or Blake Beavan. You have to have secondary pieces like that to close big trades, and a few weeks in, there just might be some Rangers prospects moving themselves into that range. That’s good.
Jurickson Profar, at this point, on a list of July trade pieces?
Starting to feel more and more like a stretch.
