The Texas Rangers have to win as many Yu Darvish starts as they possibly can, especially right now with the starting rotation a mere shell of what it was expected to be this season.
On Monday night, as so often before, Darvish wasn't at his best in Oakland, but the Rangers' bullpen was able to maintain striking distance for the Rangers' bats, which eventually came through and won the game in comeback fashion.
The quartet of Jason Frasor, Alexi Ogando, Neal Cotts and Joakim Soria — otherwise known as Ron Washington's circle of trust in his makeshift bullpen — was nearly at its best on Monday night, working three innings of shutout baseball to allow the Rangers to win 4-3 in the first installment of Rangers-A's this season.
Cotts picked up the win against one of his former teams, and Soria notched his fourth save of the season despite what could have been a costly Elvis Andrus in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Once Tanner Scheppers is healthy, and assuming he can be effective in the bullpen again, and Neftali Feliz is ready to dive back into a big-league bullpen, the Rangers' bullpen will be far different looking and could be very good. But for now, leave it to those four to carry the unit.
