'He's just done a terrific job': Dunning wraps 1st half

WASHINGTON -- The reasons for the Rangers’ place atop the AL West at the All-Star break are plentiful. Naturally, the bats garner much of the attention -- Texas enters the break leading the American League in OPS and runs scored -- while Nathan Eovaldi has emerged as an ace and a candidate to start the All-Star Game on Tuesday.

In explaining the Rangers’ perch atop the division, though, Dane Dunning's emergence as a rotation fixture cannot be overlooked. As lefties Andrew Heaney and Martín Pérez have battled inconsistency throughout the first half, Dunning has been a steady presence since moving to the rotation in early May, just days after Jacob deGrom was lost for the season.

“He’s just done a terrific job,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s pitched like someone at the front end of a rotation. That’s how good he’s been.”

Like the Rangers as a whole, though, an impressive first half hit a speed bump heading into the break, as Dunning was unable to escape the sixth inning in a 7-2 loss to Washington on Sunday afternoon at Nationals Park.

“I wish today could have gone a little bit better,” said Dunning, who held the Nationals scoreless through four innings before allowing a leadoff homer to Dominic Smith in the fifth.

Dunning left the game with two on and two out in the sixth after hitting Smith in the right shin with a curveball. Josh Sborz came on in relief, but an infield hit from the Nationals’ Luis García extended the inning, before Alex Call hit a two-run single to give Washington a 4-1 lead.

“Really, it was just making too many mistakes,” said Dunning, who went 5 2/3 innings, allowing seven hits and four runs.

“I left some changeups up. I felt like I threw a good pitch to Dominic Smith -- it was a sinker down and he got a good barrel on it, a good swing. But in that last inning, I’ve got to make a pitch. I threw a curveball, it hit him and I was out of the game. Those moments, I have to be able to bear down, make an out and get us out of that situation.”

Dunning’s streaks of four quality starts and four straight wins both ended, but he still carried a 2.84 ERA into the break, a smidge behind Eovaldi for the lead among Rangers starters.

The rare blip for Dunning on Sunday is perhaps symbolic for the first-place team as a whole. While the Rangers enter the break atop the AL West for the first time since 2016, they do so having lost eight of their last 11 games, and 11 of their last 16.

The Rangers began that 16-game stretch a season-high 6 1/2 games clear of the Astros in the division. Texas now heads into the break just two games clear of Houston. Is the recent slide a reason for concern for a Rangers lineup that has stayed relatively healthy over the past few weeks?

“You’ll take where we’re at, at the break,” said Bochy. “Do we like how it’s gone the last couple of weeks? No, this is not how we wanted to finish. But I’ll say this: This was never going to be a walk in the park. There are ebbs and flows in a season, and this is what we’re going to have to deal with. What’s important is how we’re going to handle it. I will say, I think the break is probably coming at a good time.”

Bochy also suggested that the schedule may have caught up to the Rangers, who just completed a stretch of 17 consecutive games without a day off and 30 games across 31 days.

“Unfortunate to end [the first half] on the note that we did,” said Dunning. “But hopefully we can turn it into motivation going into the second half. [The season as a whole] has been really fun; there’s been really good camaraderie. We’re playing good ball. It’s just been a little bit of a grind to end that first half.

“Top to bottom, I think everyone can use a couple of days off, and then going into that second half, hopefully we go into it strong.”