Rangers' Rotation Performing Beyond Expectations

Coming into the season, the general line of thought was that the Rangers would need their elite bullpen to carry the load of the Rangers' pitching staff for the first two months or so, until Yu Darvish returned and the rotation lined out the way we've all envisioned it.

So far through eight games, it's been quite the opposite.

In fact, of the four Rangers' losses this year, three were games lost by relievers, including a blown save from Shawn Tolleson to finish off an epic bullpen collapse last Wednesday.

The starters? Well, they've been very solid.

Cole Hamels has been great, and behind him it's been a whole lot of solid with the one drawback being the number of free passes they've given with walks. In fact, all but one Rangers start this year has resulted in a quality start (minimum six innings, maximum of three earned runs allowed) and that was Derek Holland in the opening game of the Rangers-Angels series last week. He went five innings and allowed three runs.

Colby Lewis has turned in two quality starts, including Monday night's win over Seattle. Hell, even A.J. Parker reached that status in his season debut — his first time in a big-league game since 2013.

Will it keep up? Who knows, but right now it's very welcomed.

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