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

Taking on the Houston Astros for the first time this season, the initial two games haven’t necessarily gone according to plan for the Texas Rangers. They lost on Thursday by a score of 4-3, and then were completely handled on Friday night by a score of 10-4.

Coming off a two-game series loss to the San Francisco Giants, there was some quiet hope that the Rangers would be able to use this weekend’s series against the Astros as a chance to find some rhythm again. Alas, that hasn’t been the case, as Houston continues to look like a force to be reckoned with here in the American League.

Specifically looking at Friday night’s 10-4 loss, there was a common theme that took place in regards to the Rangers’ pitching: lack of control.

Lack of control plagued a trio of Texas Rangers pitchers on Friday night.

The trio of Wes Benjamin, Brett de Gues, and Hyeon-Jong Yang combined to allow eight walks in just 7.0 innings of total work.

Not great!

Wes Benjamin

Starting first with Benjamin, this was not the type of outing that he was likely envisioning upon being called back up to the Major Leagues.

More from Nolan Writin'

• Framework for a potential Max Fried trade to the Texas Rangers
• Early 2023 MLB mock draft has Texas Rangers selecting an Ohtani-lite
• 3 Texas Rangers outfield trade targets not named Bryan Reynolds
• Did Jacob deGrom really mean what he said at his Texas Rangers press conference?
• Where do Texas Rangers prospects Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker stand after the DeGrom signing?

An Opening Day roster member who was optioned to the Minor Leagues due to some control issues (go figure), Benjamin was called up on Friday afternoon to replace Kohei Arihara’s spot in the rotation.

Benjamin threw 49 pitches across just 1.2 innings, walking three and allowing three runs to score.

Maybe it’s unfair to judge a guy who probably didn’t know he was going to be pitching against the Houston Astros until the day off, but it was a lackluster showing nevertheless.

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.