ARLINGTON, Texas — Texas Rangers manager Skip Schumaker said Tuesday the club’s final off day of the regular season came at the right time for a banged-up team. Brandon Nimmo was back in the lineup after an illness kept him out of Sunday’s game.
Schumaker spoke on The Skip Schumaker Show, the pregame segment Rangers Sports Network posts before games, ahead of the series opener against the New York Mets. He said Texas had won a couple of series in a row. He said a lot of players still needed Monday off.
“Yeah, a lot of guys needed the day off, and I think it couldn’t have happened at a better time,” Schumaker said. “Having said that, we won a couple series in a row, so you kind of want to ride that kind of hot hand, hot wave, players feeling good. However, I think this time of year, you really, really like the off days to kind of reset. The bullpen gets reset. The position players feel good coming in after an off day. We’ve got a big series against the Mets. So I think it was a good off day for everybody.”
Illness Hits The Rangers Clubhouse
Texas took two of three from the Boston Red Sox last week and two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays over the weekend. On Saturday, the Rangers placed right-hander Michel Otañez on the 15-day injured list with a viral illness, retroactive to Friday, a day after selecting his contract from Triple-A Round Rock. Nimmo missed Sunday’s series finale against Toronto.
Schumaker said the players felt a lot better coming off the off day. He said sickness spreads easily among players who share a clubhouse, meetings, and high fives.
“I mean, it’s an interesting question because I don’t know the answer because you’re in a clubhouse and you’re surrounded by all your teammates and you have hitters meetings and pitchers meetings and you’re high-fiving each other,” Schumaker said. “So you do the best you can. These things happen to teams throughout the season. Ours just happened to be last week. Luckily, again, we had the off day. So they feel a lot better coming after the off day. But I don’t know how to keep them away from getting sick. It’s just kind of what it is. But we’re doing the best we can.”
Skip Schumaker’s Plan Against Sean Manaea
Left-hander Sean Manaea starts for New York at 7:05 p.m. CT. He is 5-7 with a 4.74 ERA, a 1.32 WHIP, and 132 strikeouts. Schumaker said Manaea throws a lot of strikes. He said the slider and changeup remain Manaea’s best pitches.
“A lot of strikes,” Schumaker said. “He’s got the three-quarter kind of upshoot with the fastball. The slider and changeup are still his weapons. He’s been doing it a long time. But we’ve got to be on the attack, make sure that we’re moving the fastball forward and not get in between on the changeup.”
MacKenzie Gore starts for Texas. The Rangers (78-78) lead the Houston Astros by one game in the American League West with six games left, though Houston holds the tiebreaker. After the Mets leave town Thursday, Texas finishes the regular season with three games against the Minnesota Twins from Sept. 25-27.
