Coming into the series, it seemed the most likely outcome was a bookend split — Gerrit Cole is as good as it gets in baseball this season, the middle two starters were technically MLB pitchers, and Nestor Cortes set you up well for Sunday. So far that’s exactly what happened, with the number-two-who-should-be-number-one getting the ball against the Rangers with a split on the line.
Cortes isn’t off to quite as good a run as last year, with a 3.49 ERA and 3.61 FIP, although he’s taken command of the strike zone over the past three games. In two outings against Minnesota and one against the Angels, he’s struck out more than 27 percent of batters faced, more than a tick above his usual.