When rosters expand on Sept. 1, the Texas Rangers will have plenty of arms in their bullpen as guys like Tanner Scheppers will undoubtedly return to the big-league club. But they might be getting a big boost to an already dominant bullpen with the return of an injured player, as Koji Uehara looked great in Wednesday's loss to Tampa Bay.
Uehara, a deceptive righty, is fantastic against left-handers, which kind of cancels out the problem of the Rangers only have two lefties โ and really only one reliable one โ in their pen in Robbie Ross and an up-and-down Michael Kirkman.
On Wednesday night, Uehara followed up a scoreless inning against Minnesota over the weekend by tossing 1 2/3 scoreless innings against the Rays in an 8-4 Rangers' loss.
Uehara got two strikeouts and also allowed two hits, but didn't let anything cross the plate.
"I was pretty satisfied with the [splitfinger fastballs] and my four seamers, but the second inning I don't think I was mentally where I needed to be," said Uehara, through an interpreter after the game.
With Alexi Ogando set as the 7th inning guy/multi-inning guy, Mike Adams in the set-up role and Joe Nathan entrenched as the team's closer, Uehara only adds more depth to what is proving to be the best bullpen in the game.