Texas Rangers: Lack of pitch control to blame during ugly loss to Houston

Brett de Geus

Brett de Geus worked out of the Benjamin-induced jam in the second inning, but started displaying his own respective control issues in the third. He ended up walking two hitters in just 0.1 innings of work, allowing four earned runs to cross the plate before being relieved by Yang.

With 2021 being his first season in the Major Leagues, hopes were on the higher side of things when it came to de Gues’ role in the Texas Rangers bullpen. Thus far, the results haven’t been the best.

The right-hander has a 6.75 ERA across 17.1 innings of work, having already hit four batters to go along with his ten issued walks.

Specifically on Friday night, we saw an overall inability to consistently hit his spots really plague him on the mound. 13 of his 25 pitches were thrown for balls, and when he was finding the zone, the Astros were obviously having no problems making contact with the ball and putting it into play.

The Texas Rangers coaching staff has repeatedly emphasized the importance of avoiding walks this season, a message that clearly didn’t resonate with the likes of Benjamin and de Geus during their brief appearances on Friday night.

Five total walks through the first 2.0 innings is always going to be tough to navigate around.

Hyeon-Jong Yang

Last but not least, Hyeon-Jong Yang also had his own respective struggles on the mound yesterday evening.

Ultimately giving the Rangers a much-needed 4.0 innings of length out of the bullpen, Yang still ended up walking three batters while simultaneously allowing an additional three runs to score. While Yang’s outing wasn’t nearly as disastrous as Benjamin’s and de Gues’, it was still the first time we’ve really seen Yang struggle to find his spots on the mound.

Entering Friday night’s game he had been fairly effective for the Rangers this season, even giving the team a half-decent 3.1 inning start on May 5th against the Twins.

However, his outing against the Astros showed us a different side to Yang as a pitcher. Outside of the walks and the runs allowed, he threw 30 of his 72 pitches for balls – a rather high rate for a guy who is known for his control and location, as opposed to velocity and “stuff.”

The Rangers have already lost their series to the Astros, so now it’s just about spoiling the sweep on Saturday afternoon. With the New York Yankees up ahead in the schedule as well, grabbing a win to boost some morale and confidence moving forward would be rather significant.