Jakob

Junis

Jacob Latz had pitched two days in a row, so it was suspected that Junis would lose tonight. The 33-year-old journeyman has a 1.69 ERA in 26 2/3 innings of relief work for the Rangers.

Not good. Jakob Junis will take the ball to open a bullpen game on Monday night in his place. Eovaldi was in line for a two-start week against Arizona and Houston after spinning an eight-inning masterpiece against the Yankees his last time out. The 36-year-old veteran will presumably undergo imaging to determine the severity of the issue and whether he’ll require a trip to the injured list. It’s obviously an alarming development for the Rangers, and fantasy managers as well. There should be a definitive update on his status at some point shortly.

Latz has seemed like a candidate for saves in the Texas bullpen for weeks now, but this is his first save of the year. He joins Jakob Junis (three), Tyler Alexander (two) and Cole Winn (one) in having earned saves for the Rangers. Junis set him up with a scoreless eighth tonight, while Winn wound up with the win for pitching a scoreless sixth. It’s difficult to recommend any one Texas reliever right now, but Latz is probably the best bet of the bunch from an ERA standpoint.

It doesn’t sound like there are any plans to put Garcia on the injured list, but that could change if he’s not ready to pitch in a couple days. The 29-year-old has been unavailable since last Friday. Jakob Junis appears to be the favorite to continue closing games for the Rangers.

This was a 3-0 game after eighth, but the Rangers scored twice in the ninth to take away the save situation. It didn’t appear that Jakob Junis ever warmed up, so this probably would have been a save chance for Latz if the Rangers hadn’t scored. Cole Winn pitched a hitless eighth for a hold.

The Rangers’ flavor of the week at closer was called upon to protect a two-run lead with two men on and one out in the seventh inning. He did his job, retiring the next two hitters in order to escape the jam. He returned for the eighth though and ended up loading the bases on an infield single, double and an intentional walk with two outs before handing the ball off to Jacob Latz. He then allowed a bases-clearing double that charged three runs to Junis’ ledger. Even with this rough outing, Junis still sports a strong 2.89 ERA and 0.75 WHIP over 9 1/3 innings while converting each of his first three save chances.

Jakob Junis is the closer of the Texas Rangers. Weird. That’s the third save of the season for the right-hander, and he’s gotten the ninth inning in his last three appearances. The 33-year-old has looked the part thus far, and did so again Sunday with a pair of strikeouts versus one walk and not allowing a hit. It seems like the leash for Junis will be thin, but for those hunting for saves, if he’s still unrostered, there it is.

Winn gave up a leadoff single to Cole Young, but he then retired Luke Raley, Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodríguez in order. Winn has thrown 6 1/3 scoreless innings to begin the year, and his velocity, which has been down about two mph from last year, came back up some today; he averaged 95.8 mph with his fastball, compared to 94.1 mph in his first six outings and 96.2 mph in his 33 appearances last year. Though we do have to note that Jakob Junis, who earned saves the last two days, wasn’t available in this one, Winn seems like a threat for more saves in Texas.

Junis entered for the ninth inning with a one-run lead for his second save chance in as many days. He gave up a pair of base hits before generating two fly outs and a groundout to end the game with his second save. The 33-year-old veteran right-hander has clearly worked his way into the saves mix for the Rangers, but this remains a fluid situation while Junis isn’t particularly skilled with closer material. Still, he’s worth an add in deep leagues at the moment if chasing saves in the early going.

It’s just the second save of the year for Junis, and it’s worth noting that he was facing the heart of Seattle’s lineup. He got Cal Raleigh to ground out, and while he did plunk Julio Rodríguez, he was able to get Josh Naylor to hit in a game-ending double play and needed just four pitches to get out of the inning. Robert Garcia worked the eighth inning against the bottom of the Mariners’ lineup, so this is a situation to monitor for those who roster Garcia. It’s a situation to avoid if at all possible for those who don’t.