Texas Rangers: Team Loses Series In Oakland And Stays Last

The Texas have lost their series against the A’s in Oakland. Their series-losing streak increases to two, resulting in a 5-10 record and 1-5 record in their last six games. They remain at the bottom of the American League West standings. Right now, it’s shades of the start of 2015.

Team’s performance in game one was phenomenal. In games two and three? Not so much. Weak offense and bad pitching. At the moment, the Texas Rangers’ pitching leads the league in runs surrendered with 73 and they’re third in the league in hits allowed with 126. They’re also 6th in the league in strikeouts with 113.

A.J. Griffin was on the mound for game one. Allowing a season-low of one hit, surrendering no runs, and striking out a season-high of eight, shows he may be finally heading the right direction. He’s 2-0 so far. On a positive note, it was the first time since the 2013 season, he’s allowed one hit in a game and he’s currently ranked 12th among American League pitchers. He’s 2-0, but he’s still needs to improve. Let’s not forget him starting 2-0 last year and 2016 turned out to be a rough season. Griffin’s working very hard to get his career back on track. So far he’s doing good. Let’s hope he keeps it up.

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Yu Darvish stepped on the mound in game two. He pitched 5.1 innings, allowing three hits, surrendering four runs. He’s now 1-4 in six career starts in Oakland and 1-2 this season with an ERA of 3.28. Darvish is currently fourth in the American League in strikeouts with a total of 23. Not a hot start to his final year under contract with Texas. If he desires to stay in Arlington, he needs to pick himself up and pitch better so he can stay in games longer and earn victories.

Martin Perez pitched the last game. He pitched only 3.2 innings, allowing a season-high of seven hits, surrendering a season-high of four runs, and striking out a season-low of two batters. Perez is third in the American League in allowing hits with 25. He’s now 1-2 for the season.

Bullpen did great in game one as they managed to not allowed Oakland to score a run, thus giving Texas their first shut-out win this season being their first since September of last season. In game three, relief pitcher Mike Hauschild surrendered five runs, allowing Oakland to take a commanding 9-1 lead. Jose Leclerc came in to close in game three, allowing no hits, surrendering no runs, and striking out two batters. Leclerc may be on his way to becoming the team’s closer. Keone Kela closed out games one and two, allowing no hits, surrendering no runs, and striking out three batters.

Offense finished this game 13-for-94 and 20 strikeouts. Absolutely awful. Only one homer was hit in the this game, taking place in game three by Joey Gallo. Mike Napoli went 2-for-12 in this series. Carlos Gomez 2-for-11, Nomar Mazara 2-for-12, Rougned Odor 2-for-11. Shin-Soo Choo, Jurickson Profar and Jonathan Lucroy 0-for-7. Elvis Andrus and Joey Gallo a combined 4-for-21. Everyone’s been on a bit of slump lately.

Offense is currently third in the league in runs scored with 72. Previously, they were first prior to this series. They’re also 23rd in hits with 105, third in homers with 21, and seventh in strikeouts with a total of 125.

There’s a lot of work to do. Judging by their performance in these last two series, there’s no doubt about it. Tomorrow, Texas starts a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals. In any case, they need to start playing better baseball immediately.