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ARLINGTON – Sometimes, it's important to say something.
Sometimes, it's more important not to.
And, so, if the Rangers played with an edge in throttling the AL Central-leading Chicago White Sox on Tuesday in a necessary bounce-back win, it was a night for the strong and silent types, or at least a night where quiet said as much as words.
Kumar Rocker, the strongest and quietest of the Rangers, pitched six shutout innings to pick up where Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom had faltered in front of him as the Rangers tumbled off their tenuous first-place perch. But what was even more noticeable was that Brandon Nimmo, usually the life of the daily hitters meeting, had precious little to say before the game. He instead took the Teddy Roosevelt route and carried the big stick.
Carried it pretty well, too, with an opposite field, two-out, two-run homer in the first and three other hits over the course of the night.
"I didn't feel like anything really needed to be said," Nimmo said afterwards. "Some days are different than others, but it was our first day not in first place in a while. You have to keep your foot on the gas pedal. Everyone else wants it as bad as you do, so it was just on my mind.
"I was just trying to really focus on what we could do and not try and focus on things outside of our control. You know, just give it our best effort, leave no stone unturned. Sometimes I can overcomplicate things by speaking too much. So, today was a little more succinct and we knew what we needed to do."
Nimmo wasn't the only lefty in the lineup to thrive. He and Alejandro Osuna were the only two lefties in the starting lineup against lefty Noah Schultz. And both played huge roles. Osuna, for whom the Rangers have struggled to find at-bats lately, got a rare start against a lefty and provided three singles and three RBIs.
"He's never complained once," Nimmo said. "He's been at the front of every handshake, a big old smile on his face, and behind the scenes, he's been waiting for his opportunity and working really, really hard.
"We had a game plan since we were just the two lefties in there today and he came in and was ready for the opportunity."
The Rangers had lost three of four coming out of the break and fallen a half game behind Seattle in the AL West entering Tuesday. The losses, combined with Boston's 14-game winning streak, had also dropped them out of a playoff spot for the first time in a month and with only two weeks to go to the trade deadline.
A day earlier, Rangers president of baseball operations Chris Young hadn't committed one way or another to a trade deadline philosophy. And after Eovaldi and deGrom gave up nine runs in 8 2/3 combined innings, there was a bit of an ominous feeling creeping into the building.
But Rocker and Nimmo, who for the first time in his career had four hits all off lefties in a game, gave the Rangers a jolt. Rocker, pitching for the first time in 10 days got the most out of the extended rest, seeing both of his fastballs jump about a mile per hour in velocity. He also unveiled his latest version of a changeup – a splitter – that he mixed in six times to at least give him something slower against lefties to keep them more off balance.
The results were stunning. He allowed a hit in six innings and two walks and could have gone deeper, but the game was already out of hand and preserving the life in his arm throughout the second half, when he has stuff like he had Tuesday, is a priority. Rocker, at 96 innings, is already past his previous professional high of 83 innings a year ago.
"It always starts with pitching," manager Skip Schumaker said. "[Rocker] set the tone. We needed a strong start. We needed a reset in that bullpen, which had worked so hard. So, the offense really helped with that. We needed a combination today of both to get back on track and they provided that."
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