DALLAS —
Just as playing a really bad team can help to jump start a team in all facets of the game, facing a world-class, World Series favorite team can completely derail a team’s momentum. As Texas took two of three from the Rockies – the beginning of their best stretch of baseball – you (or at least I) may have circled the two-game set against Houston and the three-game set against Boston as places where the feel good feelings would likely stop.
Surprisingly, somewhat encouragingly, Texas didn't fare too poorly against Houston. Yes, they lost both games, but they didn't look completely uncompetitive. Texas then split a series with Detroit…and then came Boston. Up against a juggernaut combination of offense and pitching, Texas just couldn't overcome their own shortcomings and did what a bad team does against a good team.
Unfortunately, the inferiority lingered over into the Baltimore series, and in a battle of basement teams, the Rangers suffered flashbacks from the early weeks of their season and appeared uncoordinated, unprepared and underwhelmed. It’s fairly poetic – the Rangers closed out the ceremonial first half of the season looking like they did at the start of it.
July 9-15
- Opponents: @Boston Red Sox, @Baltimore Orioles
- 6-Game Record: 1-5
- Overall Record: 41-56, 22 Games Back of Houston Astros
- Injury Report: Doug Fister (60, Strained Knee), Matt Bush (60, right elbow strain), Tony Barnette (60, Strained Lat Muscle), Carlos Perez (10, right ankle sprain), Chris Martin (10, Groin), Alex Claudio (10, ankle sprain)
- Notable Stats: Delino Deshields During Road Trip (0-for-28), Team Average with Runners in Scoring Position over this stretch (5-for-34), Errors During Road Trip (7), Shin-Soo Choo’s On-Base Streak (51).
At the Plate
Being shut out twice on one road trip is no fun. When your starter in both games kept you in the fight for as long as possible, it hurts that much more. That was the case in both Boston and Baltimore.
Against the Red Sox, it was Mike Minor, who only allowed two runs coming via a two-out, first inning home run, as he and new acquisition Cory Gearrin kept the Red Sox off of the scoreboard again until the eighth inning. Texas could do nothing at the plate themselves.
Against the Orioles, the loss was perhaps even more painful, as the returning Martin Perez gave up just one run and gave the team seven innings of otherwise flawless baseball but the bats once again failed to produce a run of support.
It’s not as if the Rangers weren't hitting. Between the Boston and Baltimore series, the Rangers racked up 42 hits. They’ve just now reached a point where their hits aren't being strung together anymore, a problem that plagued them for most of the first half.
You can’t blame any one person, as everyone short of Delino DeShields has tallied hits over the last week. DeShields, however, as a secondary table setter certainly isn’t doing the team any favors. Delino went hitless on the entire road trip and is now just hitting .208. His on-base percentage has dropped to .301, which sounds alright, but since he’s only drawn one walk over the whole trip, his OBP over his last nine games is .030.
Again, though, the blame can’t be pinned on just one person. Nor can the poor results of this road trip be blamed solely on the offense. Short of the two shutouts, the offense kept fighting and attempting to be productive even through the later innings.
The good news for Rangers fans is Shin-Soo Choo continued his historic streak with his finest day from this stretch of games coming in Sunday's finale when he walked to lead off the game, singled, homered, and walked a second time to finish with four appearances on base on a day he ran his on base streak to 51 straight games.
No one in baseball has had a streak for that long in over a decade and with each passing game, Choo is climbing a leader board dotted with legends. While his teammates take a breather, Choo is currently the lone Ranger in Washington to represent Texas at the All-Star Game. It's a just reward.
On the Mound
The honeymoon period with Yovani Gallardo appears to be over. Of course, the other way of looking at it is that Gallardo’s three wins came against Minnesota, Chicago and Detroit. At the time Gallardo faced Boston they had just won seven in a row. And the Red Sox aren't residents of the historically bad American League Central, either. All things considered, you might feel thankful that the fifth starter several times over for Texas gave you five full innings on 97 pitches against that Boston offense.
Bartolo Colon didn't fare that poorly against the Boston powerhouse, either, but his offense was facing the buzzsaw that is Chris Sale. Minor certainly showed the good and the bad of what he can be – going 5 1/3 innings of two-run ball against Boston, but then, in his next outing, wasting a first inning lead, courtesy of a Ronald Guzman grand slam, and surrendering six runs to a struggling Orioles lineup.
In this outing, we saw more of the problems that plagued Minor in his first few starts – the inability to put hitters away with two strikes, and the inability to escape jams with two outs. More on that later.
Cole Hamels was next. The last two weeks, we’ve had the discussion of Cole Hamels and whether he has hurt his trade value by having poor outings against three bad teams in a row. After his most recent poor start against Detroit, we heard something of an excuse from Hamels, as he conveyed his disappointment that current day baseball dictates that a pitcher’s outings be determined by pitch count. He had a chance to acquit himself against Baltimore.
For six innings, Hamels looked like he was feeling his rhythm. Then, in the seventh, after two singles with one out, Cole Hamels, the ace of the Rangers’ staff, walked the hapless and luckless and seemingly skill-less Chris Davis on four consecutive wayward pitches.
Did Hamels surrender the double that scored three runs in the seventh? No, but he certainly looked to be on his way to losing control of the situation. The bottom line is this: You can’t walk Chris Davis, who is hitting .158, with an on-base percentage of .232 and greater than a 4 to 1 strikeout to walk ratio.
Similarly, on Minor’s end, you can’t walk No. 9 hitter Caleb Joseph, hitting .209, with an on-base percentage of .248 and a 7-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio.
In the Field
Here, perhaps is where we saw some evidence that this team is ready for the All-Star Break. Delino DeShields’ routes weren't as clear and sharp as they have been over the course of the season. In addition to his woes at the plate, DeShields has had to make a few more diving and sliding catches than usual in the last couple of weeks and it ended up catching up to him in Boston, as he went sliding for a catch in right-center and ended up whiplashing his head into the ground.
A few days before that, he was in a pre-game collision with Joey Gallo. DeShields, who has become a linchpin in the outfield, is perhaps looking forward to this break more than anyone else.
Jurickson Profar had the error bug come back to bite him again, as well, making a key throwing error in Sunday’s finale, and another throwing error in the game before that. Profar leads the Rangers by far in errors with 13 and is tied for 4th in all of baseball.
Ronald Guzman can only save so many throws, and indeed, we saw him save a LOT of throwing mishaps over the last week, including an outstanding splits on an Elvis Andrus barehanded grab and throw. His defense at first base and Isiah Kiner-Falefa’s ability to capably handle every position thrown at him have been by far the standouts of the Rangers’ first half of the season.
If you thought that watching the Texas Rangers was tough through the first 97 games, the ceremonial start of the second half isn’t going to be much more fun. In fact, the next Baltimore series, at home from August 2-5 is the next one the Rangers have against a team that’s currently not over .500.
It’s actually the only series in the rest of July through August that Texas won’t face a team with a winning record. Buckle up.
Up Next:
ALL-STAR BREAK.
For how many more games do you suspect Choo will be able to keep the streak going? Make your prediction with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
