SURPRISE, Ariz. -- Rangers manager Chris Woodward caught Kyle Gibson in the hallway of the team's Spring Training facility earlier this week with a simple question that caught the right-hander off guard: “Have you ever started on Opening Day? Well, you are this year.”
“It was really cool,” Gibson said. “It’s just one of those things that is probably a little bit hard to actually put into words. I don't know if some people might just think, ‘Oh, it's just another game,’ you know. So what, you get to start the first game of the year, it's a pretty special honor. I’m excited about it.”
The Rangers’ newly appointed Opening Day starter, Gibson showed his potential in Wednesday night’s 3-0 win over the D-backs at Surprise Stadium. The right-hander tossed four hitless innings, striking out six and issuing no walks. He allowed only two baserunners -- he hit Tim Locastro to begin the outing and Wyatt Mathisen reached on an error with one out in the second.
Woodward said it’s fun to see Gibson compete at the highest level with the control he’s been showing.
Gibson said Wednesday's outing was about as good as he's executed pitches in a long time, especially his cutter -- a pitch he added in the offseason and has been working on throughout the spring. He said the offering worked really well with his two-seam fastball, allowing him to induce more ground balls than he was expecting.
“I know I haven't done a whole lot, but just finding a grip that allows me to execute a little bit better has been really good,” Gibson said. “It was a good sign today that it's going down just enough. Guys hopefully are just aware enough of sinkers coming in that when [the cutter] is located away, hopefully it'll play just like that.”
Woodward said Gibson showed good movement and command on all his pitches, but especially the cutter and sinker. He emphasized how Gibson put in the work in the offseason to improve across the board, noting it’s not always easy for a veteran to change how he goes about his work.
Right-hander Dane Dunning, Texas' No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, came on to start the fifth and tossed three scoreless innings. Battling for a spot in the Rangers' rotation, Dunning allowed only one hit -- a dribbling single up the middle to Domingo Leyba with one out in the fifth -- and he struck out three.
The Rangers' final two pitchers of the night, Ian Kennedy and Josh Sborz, each pitched a perfect inning. Kennedy notched a pair of strikeouts and Sborz closed out the one-hit shutout, leaving Woodward impressed with the team's pitching staff.
“They're just better than they were last year,” Woodward said. “They're better because of the work and dedication from the organization. A lot of it, most of it, falls on the players. These guys were willing and open to just listening and hearing criticism and saying, 'OK, how do I improve?'”
Roster moves
On Wednesday, the Rangers assigned four non-roster pitchers to Minor League workout groups -- Drew Anderson, Jason Bahr, Jharel Cotton and Luis Ortiz.
The four will remain in Surprise and could appear in Cactus League games for the remainder of camp, but they will work out individually with the Minor League coaches.
Kennedi Landry covers the Rangers for MLB.com.