Ramos brings experience to spot start

ARLINGTON — Most Major League starting pitchers are creatures of habit, sticking to the same routines between starts, but the Rangers’ starter Sunday, veteran Cesar Ramos, doesn’t have that luxury. As a reliever making a spot start, he has to be adaptable.

“I just kind of wing it, day by day,” said Ramos, who has experience going back and forth from reliever to starter, having made seven starts in 43 appearances for the Rays in 2014. “It’s just kind of that role, and luckily I’ve gotten some experience doing that in Tampa. You just do what you can in between to stay sharp because you never know that game whether it’s only going to be you go out for a hitter or you just go as long as you can.”

He also has pitched against the powerful Blue Jays lineup plenty of times; he has a 3.38 ERA in 32 career innings against them, including 4 1/3 shutout innings in relief in Toronto on May 5.

“I feel like I know them pretty well and they know me pretty well, so it’s going to be no surprise for them or me,” Ramos said. “It’s just a matter of executing and keeping them off-balance.”

Ramos was available as an emergency long reliever Friday night, meaning he didn’t know for sure until the game was over that he’d be starting Sunday. Manager Jeff Banister said he trusts Ramos to handle such uncertainty because of his background.

“That’s why we like experience so much because guys have done these types of things before,” Banister said. “I probably wouldn’t do it with a …

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