ARLINGTON — Well, at least it wasn’t a no-hitter.
Unfortunately, that has been said twice in the past week about the Texas Rangers. Four days after Houston Astros starter Ronel Blanco held the Rangers hitless for 5 2/3 innings, Oakland Athletics starter JP Sears held them hitless through the seventh inning on Tuesday as Texas lost, 1-0.
Adoris Garcia singled to end Blanco’s no-hitter. He did the same against Sears with a single to left field with one out in the bottom of the seventh. He just needs help now.
The loss negated right-hander Jon Gray’s first strong start of the season and a shutout by his relief pitchers, and it was the Rangers’ first series loss of the season.
Here are four thoughts I took away from this defeat.
Paging attacks: Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.
Leadoff hitter Marcus Semien walked in the top of the first, stole second and advanced to third on a fly by rookie Wyatt Langford before striking out Garcia to end the inning. Catcher Jonah Heim walked as leadoff hitter in the second inning but didn’t advance beyond first. First baseman Ezequiel Duran did the same in the fifth.
Most notably, shortstop Corey Seager struck out four times. He has only two games with three strikeouts in the entirety of 2023 and hasn’t struck out four in a game since April 17, 2017, when the Los Angeles Dodgers played against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Seager, who missed most of spring training rehabbing from hernia repair surgery, is batting .292 to start the season but is in the bottom 1 percent of barrel rate league-wide, according to Baseball Savant.
The Rangers scored a combined 17 runs and had 31 hits in their first two games against Houston last Friday and Saturday. What happened after that? The Rangers have allowed a combined 15 runs in five games, three of which have been three or fewer. The Rangers will need to bat on a 10-game road trip against the Astros, Detroit Tigers and Atlanta Braves.
Just when you thought there was hope: After Garcia singled, Heim was hit by an Austin Adams slider to advance runners to first and second with one out. The Rangers sent Jared Walsh to pinch-hitter for Ezequiel Duran, who popped a fly ball shallow infield. Oakland second baseman Zach Geroff lunged to catch it, sliding and dropping it. Neither Garcia nor Heim left the base, and Adams made the catch to start an inning-ending 4-1-5-6 double play, eliminating the Rangers’ best chance of the day to score.
According to MLB rules, an infield fly is “a fair fly ball (not including a liner or bunt) that an infielder can catch with normal effort when first and second, or first, second and third bases are occupied, before the runner is out at second.”
“Guys have to get under the ball and get in position and none of us — the pitcher, the first baseman, the second baseman — did that,” Oakland manager Mark Kotsay said. “Obviously when Zach got under the ball and tried to make a sliding catch, he wasn’t under the ball.”
Grey’s Resurrection: The 32-year-old right-hander gave up one run, three hits and one walk in five innings while striking out a season-high nine batters. He did not pitch beyond the fourth inning in either of his first two starts this season against the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros.
Gray retired the three batters on 12 pitches (10 for strikes) in the first inning, then Oakland left fielder Seth Brown hit a 378-foot changeup to right field for a solo home run and a 1-0 lead for the Athletics. Oakland upped its pitch count in the third inning, with Geroff pitching seven pitches (with a strikeout) and J.J. Bleday pitching 11 pitches (with a strikeout), but Gray allowed two singles with one out and kept the score at zero.
He went 1-2-3 through four innings, walked leadoff hitter Lawrence Butler in the fifth, then struck out three consecutive Oakland batters to finish the day.
The only major concern is that Gray’s velocity hasn’t returned. His fastball averages 94.1 mph and has topped 95 mph just three times. Last season, he averaged 95.7 mph. Gray said after his last start against Houston that when his velocity drops, it tends to return to normal within a week or two.
Jacob Lutz is on a roll. Seriously, he hasn’t allowed an earned run since 2021. Look it up.
But there’s a big caveat beside that: He hasn’t pitched in the major leagues in 2022, pitched just 6 1/3 innings with the Rangers last season and just seven this season. But despite that, the 28-year-old lefty has transformed himself into a legitimate option in the Rangers’ relief corps.
On Thursday against Oakland, he pitched two scoreless innings, striking out four and allowing no hits. Through his first six games this season, he has more strikeouts (8) than walks and hits combined (6). Right-hander Jose Ureña continued his strong start with two scoreless innings in the eighth and ninth. Ureña, who was called up to camp on a non-roster contract, made the opening day roster and has not allowed an earned run in 9 1/3 innings as a relief pitcher for the Rangers this season.
“Everybody’s got to get on base and do their job, and that’s the bullpen’s job,” Rangers manager Bruce Bochy said. “They’ve both done a good job in that regard.”
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