Texas Rangers: Thoughts On What Went Wrong For The Team

The Texas Rangers suffer a humiliating 12-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles. As a result, they’re on a three-game losing streak for the first time in two weeks. Furthermore, they drop to fourth in the American League West standings, remaining 17 games behind the first-place Astros.

A terrible evening for the Texas Rangers. Immediately after taking a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first, it all went down hill when Baltimore responded making it 6-1 at the bottom of the first. With Baltimore making it 10-1 in the fourth, hopes of a comeback were gone. Perhaps the early 1-0 lead was just lucky.

Tyson Ross took the mound. He pitched 3.1 innings, allowing seven hits, a season-high nine runs, and striking out four batters. His allowing of nine runs ties a career-high. As a result, Ross falls to 2-2.

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Austin Bibens-Dirkx relieved Ross, pitching 2.1 innings, allowing six hits, two runs, and striking out three batters. This was Bibens-Dirkx’s first time on the mound since June 30th when he made a start against the Chicago White Sox where Texas lost 8-7. Since his last victory which was against New York on June 24th, his ERA has gone from 3.68 to 4.23. In any case, he needs to remain focused and pick up the pace a little bit.

Tony Barnette relieved Bibens-Dirkx. He pitched 2.1 innings, allowing three hits, one run, and striking out three batters. Barnette has 19 strikeouts in his last ten games. Today was his first appearance since July 4th. Overall, he’s not doing bad, but he, too, must pick up the pace a little bit.

Thoughts on pitching: Bullpen did their best but the momentum already disappeared and the bullpen had to find a way to avoid letting their cut get deeper and deeper. Ross came in fresh off a good performance against the Angels before the break. So he came in well rested and apparently didn’t have a good game. The fact that he allowed six runs in the first inning is a tough pill to swallow. It’s going to happen every now and then. Lack of concentration on the pitching explains it all.

The offense finished 6-for-32, striking out six times. The streak of fewer than eight strikeouts extends to two games for Texas. After his two-game hitting streak ended yesterday, Shin-Soo Choo goes 2-for-4, scoring Texas’ only run on a solo homer. Carlos Gomez is now hitless in three straight games. Nomar Mazara and Elvis Andrus are both hitless in two straight games. Rougned Odor snaps his five-game hitless streak, going 2-for-4. Adrian Beltre, Joey Gallo, and Jonathan Lucroy each go hitless, extending Gallo’s hitless streak to seven straight, and Lucroy’s five-game hitting streak is over. After going 0-for-1 as a pinch hitter in game one, Mike Napoli goes 1-for-4.

Thoughts on the bats: No change at all. Since the second half started, the bats have been silent. The offense is 28-for-156 since the end of the all-star break. The bats being cold and silent really hurts. If the pitching starts off great, but the offense can’t do their part then the pitching effort is all for not. Until the bats start warming it up and begin to sizzle, the Rangers will not go far. You can’t rely on just good pitching to win games. In baseball, everyone has to do their part.

Martin Perez takes the mound for game three. He’s on a four-game winning streak and is looking to win five straight games for the third time in his career. He’s playing very good as of late. If he can continue to play well and win games, he’ll be able to continue to earn wins breaks his record of six straight wins. In any case, he better be ready for anything.

Thoughts overall: It’s already been said. Texas came into this game lacking concentration. Trailing 6-1 after just one inning, it looks as though the batting just gave up. When a team lacks concentration and quits early you can expect to be humiliated. As said earlier, until the bats start to heat up, then we can’t expect to accomplish much. The Texas Rangers are a team that has the talent, but does not have the focus to get the job done.