Rangers alter rotation to ensure Hamels pitches against Astros
The state of Texas will be host to some pretty heated playoff-atmosphere baseball over the next couple of weeks as the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros battle it out for the AL West title.
The Rangers, who landed the 'big fish' of the July 31 trading deadline by picking up Cole Hamels, will make sure to maximize his impact thanks to a rotation tweak made earlier this week.
As Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News detailed, the team will call up Chi Chi Gonzalez to start on Sunday against the Oakland Athletics, bumping the other starters back a day. This will allow for Hamels to take the mound on Monday night at Globe Life Park for the first game of the big four-game series pitting the two clubs against each other.
Additionally, as Grant explained, it would put Hamels in line for a few other marquee pitching dates as well:
There are additional potential benefits of moving Hamels back, too. It means that if the Rangers stay in rotation past their final off day of the season on Sept. 21, he would also start the opener of the series at Houston on Sept. 25 and be in position to either start the season finale, if needed, on three days rest or, more preferably, be in position to start a play-in or wild card game or Game 1 of the Division Series.
Rangers manager Jeff Banister didn't mince his words when explaining the thinking behind the schedule change. "This is why we got Cole," he told Grant, adding simply, "This is why he is here."
