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.

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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.

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.