Texas Rangers news: One ugly inning, one broken hand, and one big callup looming

The Texas Rangers might have officially hit bottom no Saturday afternoon. The 10-5 loss seemed to have encapsulated everything that’s gone wrong for Bruce Bochy’s team while adding a few more problems. 

Right at the top of the list as to why this was such a bad win is that it marked the sixth straight loss. The Rangers have not won a game this week and in fact have not won a game since last Saturday when they knocked off the Houston Astros. 

Joc Pederson sidelined for the Texas Rangers

The Texas Rangers even added an injury to the insult. Early in the game, designated hitter Joc Pederson was hit in the hand by a pitch and had to leave the game. It was later confirmed that he broke his hand and will go on the injured list.

On the one … hand, his loss isn’t all that massive a loss because of how terrible a start to the season he’s had. On the other, he’s a veteran hitter who was almost certainly going to turn it around at some point. Now it seems he’s lost for a good portion of the season.

Alejandro Osuna reportedly on his way to the Texas Rangers

Speedy outfielder Alejandro Osuna was one of the names bandied about right after Joc Pederson went on the IL, though there were some who wondered if his short time in Round Rock might mean that he wasn't quite ready.

It appears that POBO Chris Young believes he is at least ready to help as reports started circulating late Saturday night that the outfielder was on his way to meet the team in Chicago. Expect to see an official announcement sometime in the morning as the Rangers finish up what has been a disastrous series against Chicago in the early afternoon.

Disastrous inning sinks the Rangers in sixth straight

It wasn’t just that Bochy’s squad lost to one of the worst teams in baseball. It was that with a 4-2 lead, the team had one of the most disastrous innings anyone in the sport has seen this season.

How did it unfold, very Keystone Kops-like. First, left fielder Wyatt Langford and center fielder Sam Haggerty collided in left-center field to mutually drop a fly ball from No. 9 hitter Austin Slater. Slater reached third.

On the next batter, third baseman Josh Jung bobbled a Chase Meidroth ground ball and couldn’t make his throw in time. Meidroth reached on an error. Six pitches later, second baseman Marcus Semien fielded a Mike Tauchman ground ball and tried to tag Meidroth on his run from first to second. Semien missed the tag — which allowed Meidroth to reach second safely and Slater to score — and couldn’t make his throw to first in time to get Tauchman out.

Jacob Webb then came in for relief for the Rangers and allowed both inherited runners to score on an Andrew Benitendi double that gave the White Sox the lead. He allowed several more runs before Luke Jackson came in to finally close things down.

Kumar Rocker coming back to the Rangers?

While Pederson is headed to the IL, pitching phenom Kumar Rocker might be just about ready to come off of it. The key question is whether he’ll return to the Big League club or stay in the minors for a while.

For now, he’s completing a rehab assignment and soon, very soon, the Texas Rangers will need to decide what they want to do with a starting pitcher who got off to a rough start to the season and is now looking to rejoin a rotation that doesn’t have an opening.