Mightier.
In the eighth inning on September 18, Oakland’s Khris Davis homered for the second time on the afternoon, driving a 1-0 Keone Kela fastball the opposite way and tucking it a few feet inside the right field foul pole.
Since then, Kela and his fellow Rangers relievers have done the following:
RELIEVER IP H R ER UIBB K
Dyson 4.0 3 0 0 3 3
Bush 5.1 2 0 0 0 5
Diekman 2.0 2 0 0 3 2
Barnette 1.0 2 0 0 0 2
Kela 2.0 0 0 0 1 3
Scheppers 3.1 1 0 0 2 1
Jeffress 1.1 0 0 0 0 1
Claudio 2.2 5 1 0 0 1
Holland 1.0 1 0 0 0 0
Martinez 6.0 4 0 0 1 2
Leclerc 2.2 4 0 0 2 2
Alvarez 0.2 0 0 0 1 2
Faulkner 1.0 0 0 0 0 0
TOTALS 33.0 24 1 0 14 24
Above:
A righthander acquired for a pair of third-tier prospects in a trade deadline deal
A 30-year-old rookie righthander signed off of a Golden Corral parking lot tryout
A lefthander picked up as the second piece in a trade deadline deal
A 32-year-old rookie righthander signed out of Japan
A righthander drafted in the 12th round
A 29-year-old righthander coming off a knee injury that cost him nearly a year
A righthander picked up as the second piece in a trade deadline deal
A lefthander drafted in the 27th round
A lefthander who’s been a career starter but asked now to audition for post-season relief work
A righthander drafted in the 18th round from a small college program where he played in the infield
A righthander signed out of the Dominican Republic for $90,000
A 27-year-old rookie lefthander with his fourth organization, having been released by one, waived by another, and traded by a third
A lefthander drafted in the 14th round
Thirty-three innings.
Twenty-four hits (19 of which were singles).
No earned runs.
In that span of time Texas has won five games. Relievers recorded three of those wins — giving the bullpen 40 for the season, one short of the all-time record set by the 1953 Brooklyn Dodgers (in an era when just about all starting pitchers occasionally pitched in relief) — and three saves.
Texas 6, Milwaukee 4 was also the third comeback win in that stretch, and the Rangers’ 48th comeback victory of the season.
Forty-eight. More than half of their wins have had them come from behind.
On nights when the starter doesn’t get it done — like last night, when the Rangers bullpen was asked to get more outs than starter A.J. Griffin recorded — comeback wins don’t happen unless the pen gets the game back under control while the offense gets to work.
Griffin struggled last night. It was probably the last time he’ll pitch this season, as he’s unlikely to make a playoff roster.
But the five pitchers who relieved him — Claudio, Barnette, Kela, Bush, and Dyson — are surely all playoff-bound.
Brewers starter Jimmy Nelson was no-hitting the Rangers one time through the order, by which time his club had jumped out to a 3-0 lead.
Then Carlos Gomez came up for a second time and tied the game with a majestic home run, driving in Jurickson Profar and Elvis Andrus, each of whom had walked.
Former Brewers Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy, in fact, drove in the first five of the Rangers’ six runs. By time Lucroy doubled Carlos Beltran and Adrian Beltre in, the Texas bullpen was already doing work.
Scorelessly.
Again.
With a group locked into place in all kinds of different ways.
