A lot of life left in that old arm: David Robertson is on fire for the Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers have struggled this season. For the first time in history, they are the defending champions. But the crown does indeed wear heavy on that weary head, as they are just 33-35 and sitting 5.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners in the AL West.

The Los Angeles Dodgers stuck a huge loss on them in game one of their series, tagging Dane Dunning for six runs, before adding another nine onto the bullpen’s total in a 15-2 drubbing. But then the Rangers turned it around, winning games two and three to take the series.

In both of those games, a 39-year-old reliever picked up in the off season did the unlikely.

David Robertson spent the first seven years of his career with the Yankees. A two and a half year stint with the White Sox saw the pinstripes bring him back to the Bronx for another couple of seasons. Since then, however, he has been something of a journeyman, spending a season in Philly, Tampa, with the Cubs, back to Philly, then the Mets and Miami. Needing to fill out an injury-laden bullpen, Texas picked him up in the winter, hoping to squeeze the last drop of baseball that he has left in him out.

Well, it looks like there is a bit of life left in that tired 39-year-old arm yet.

Robertson came in to game two to face the top of the Dodgers’ star-studded lineup in the eighth inning. He masterfully proceeded to do something that nobody in the major leagues has been able to do this season. Robertson struck out the imposing trio of Mookie Betts, Shohei Ohtani and Freddie Freeman in order.

Betts whiffed at a low curve while Ohtani swung over the top of a low sinker and Freeman just got outgunned with a fastball.

In game three, Robertson came in to face the bottom of the order in the eighth inning and pulled off the stunning feat again. He led off by hitting Cavan Biggio and giving up a single to Austin Barnes, but then dug himself out of a hole by striking out Betts, Ohtani, and Freeman. No pitcher in MLB has done that this season. David Robertson has done it twice, in back to back games.

Robertson has struck out 35.9% of the batters he’s faced this season, and has a 3.19 ERA and a 1.03 WHIP. Jonah Heim, one of the best catchers in the game, said of his performance, “He just came out prepared. Everything was crisp. It was probably the best I’ve seen his heater and his curveball in the same game. Well both games, actually. We just kept them off balance. We kept them guessing.”

For his part, Robertson was more sanguine about it, saying, “It was just my turn to win a battle against them because they’ve been beating me up so bad. That’s the first time I’ve faced Ohtani, but gosh, when he swings, you can see how dangerous he is. He hits the ball really hard. You see what he can do, he can flip balls out to any part of the park, so I got lucky.”

Robertson continued, “Mookie, on the other hand, he’s been hitting lasers off me his whole career. I feel like I got him when he was first in the league. I got him out a bunch of times, and then he just flipped the switch and just was all over me.”

When questioned about Freeman, Robertson laughed, “Freddie!? Jesus, he hits everything I throw! I showed him almost every pitch I had. I said on the radio interview that I think the last time I got him out was in Spring Training when he was a Brave. He’s just a hell of a hitter, he’s tough to get out.”

Sometimes the stars align, and Bruce Bochy seems to have found that little bit of baseball left in David Robertson’s arm.