Worth it.
Rangers 9, Tigers 2
Do I have to? Fine. This was a rough one. Robbie Ray (3 GS, 15.1 IP, 4.11 ERA, 3.91 FIP, 0.2 fWAR) looked fine in the first and it got ugly in a hurry from the second inning on. He pitched into the 4th, allowing 7 runs, and didn’t fool anybody. Ray has a solid future, but he ran into his first real challenge (a team that hits lefties well) and they knocked him around. The Tigers bats had some early chances but BABIP’d their way out of them until the 6th inning when they started to chip away. It was Darvish, so you can’t be too upset about that, but you’d have preferred a competitive contest. The real note in this one was that Coke pitched despite his heavy workload in an effort to save the pen and Smyly came in to throw between starts and did the same. The big one? Danny Worth came in for the 9th inning and struck out two batters throwing knuckleballs. He got five whiffs and touched 89 on the heater. It was awesome. Anibal Sanchez (6 GS, 28 IP, 2.89 ERA, 2.64 FIP, 0.8 fWAR) goes on Friday.
The Moment: Danny Worth pitches!
via Grant Brisbee at SBN.
New English D 
Great GIF of the Knuckler thought I was watching Steve Sparks for a minute there.
I don’t know if this is dumb, but I’d have Worth work on that knuckleball, and slowly get him used to some pressure. Then, kind of like a LOOGY, I’d bring him in late innings against free swingers (e.g., pick a White Sock), especially if it were windy, and watch the hitter embarrass himself. That’d make Worth a F*SOGGY (Free Swinger One-out G-GuY)?