ARLINGTON -- The Rangers have enjoyed a resurgence of starting pitching lately, and
Rangers starters are 7-3 with a 2.94 ERA in their last 17 games. That includes 4 2/3 scoreless innings over four games from relievers used as an opener. And
Lynn is part of the resurgence. He is now 5-2 with a 3.30 ERA in his past seven starts after going 2-2 with a 6.51 ERA in his first five. The difference, Woodward said, is Lynn mixing his pitches better instead of relying heavily on his fastball.\n\nThrough his first five starts, Lynn was throwing either the four-seam fastball or two-seam sinker 73.6 percent of the time. Over the next five starts, that dropped to 61.7 percent. That actually made his fastball better as the opposing batting average/slugging percentage dropped from .345/.540 to .233/.360.\n\nBut on Saturday, Lynn went back to going heavy on the fastball, throwing the hard stuff on 82 of 102 pitches. The key was his ability to mix the two. He kept the sinking fastball down in the zone and the four-seamer up high.\n\n“It’s really hard as a hitter to hit both of those,” Woodward said. “It gets you in between. He does a really good job of that.”
Lynn allowed six hits, did not walk a batter and struck out seven. For the season, he has a 3.50 strikeout-to-walk ratio. If that holds up, that would be the fifth best for a Rangers pitcher in club history.\n\n“In the game of baseball, you can’t sit on what you have done in the past,” Lynn said. “We have to keep improving every day, and if we do that, we’ll be all right.”\n\nLynn left the game with one out in the seventh after doubles by