ARLINGTON, Texas — The Texas Rangers certainly made a statement immediately on the other side of the trade deadline where the front office had shown faith in the team’s ability to rise to the occasion of fighting to contend in the American League West by doing more adding than selling.
Unfortunately, that statement was more terrible baseball on the road in St. Louis, showing that the club very well might have miscalculated their chances and missed out on what became a strong seller’s market at the deadline.
However, when you have $222 million in payroll and are the defending World Series champs, waving the white flag doesn’t tend to sit well with the fanbase, especially when, even with the poor showing against the Cardinals, the team is still within striking distance in the division.
Going 1-5 on a road trip when there is supposed to be hope and optimism in the air doesn’t sit well either. The Rangers, though, didn’t even put up much of a fight as July's final series was frittered away.
Game 107: Texas 6, St. Louis 3 (W: Eovaldi, 8-4, L: Pallante, 4-5, Sv: Yates, 19)
Game 108: Texas 1, St. Louis 8 (W: Lynn, 6-4, L: Scherzer, 2-4)
Game 109: Texas 1, St. Louis 10 (W: McGreevy, 1-0, L: Heaney, 4-11)
Shaking things up
Since Marcus Semien joined up with Texas, the annual MVP candidate has had three games hitting somewhere else other than the leadoff spot. On Monday, in the series opener, Josh Smith was the first guy to bat.
Manager Bruce Bochy decided to toy with the lineup, desperate to find a spark from a habitually moribund offense. For one game and one game only, the move paid off. As Nathan Eovaldi shut down the Cardinals, the Rangers’ slightly tweaked lineup looked more cohesive than they have in a while against a good team in St. Louis. Texas racked up 13 hits, including a two-run homer from Nathaniel Lowe as part of a 6-3 victory.
Every Ranger in the lineup registered a hit, except for Adolis Garcia, who still managed to contribute with a run scored and RBI. Coming off getting swept in Toronto just before the trade deadline, this output from the lineup was just what the front office needed to see to, at the very least, keep the team intact. However, the win on Monday would be far and away the high point of the stay over in the midwest.
Lifeless
No, the Rangers did not face 2023 AL Cy Young runner-up Sonny Gray as expected in the finale of the series. Instead, they faced a 24-year old righty making his Major League debut. Hats off to Michael McGreevy, he can say he held the World Series Champions to one run over seven innings of work a day after former Ranger Lance Lynn had similar ease of carving up Texas.
Against these Rangers, a successful start might not be saying a whole lot. Texas collected five hits on the day and three of those were from who you would expect them from – Josh Smith, Corey Seager and Marcus Semien, the top three of the order – and Carson Kelly, marking his first game with the Rangers.
But the idea of lifelessness doesn’t just come from facing an unexpected pitcher; the Rangers also were held to just four hits the night before against Lynn. Only one of them produced a run, a Wyatt Langford solo home run.
The Rangers, though for the rest of the night, looked futile in their efforts. They struck out just nine times over the last two games of the series and just couldn’t find any holes in Busch Stadium. The result was a painful-to-watch series in a painful-to-watch season from the lineup.
Can’t stop the bleeding
Neither Max Scherzer nor Andrew Heaney were able to give the Rangers much in the way of consumed innings or efficient pitching in their starts following Monday’s win and that doomed the Rangers to a series loss.
While Scherzer only surrendered the three hits, it took him 68 pitches in four innings to do it. Even though he finished the fourth inning with his first 1-2-3 frame, another bout of arm fatigue on a muggy summer day in St. Louis sent him to the showers early.
The lefty Heaney, who could eventually be the odd man out once Tyler Mahle and Jacob deGrom arrive, fared far worse. Although he made it one further frame than Scherzer, Heaney also gave up three additional runs, punctuated by a fast-occurring series of events in the second inning where infield defense and decision-making failed Texas and by the time all that was said and done, St. Louis led 3-0 and it only got worse from there.
With such short outings, Bochy was forced to rely on some innings from his middle relievers. Cody Bradford, making his return to the bullpen in relief of Scherzer, gave up a grand slam to Tommy Pham in his first appearance since mid-April on Tuesday. On Wednesday, in the finale, the Rangers bullpen allowed another four runs to score. Combined with the lack of offense, and the last two days in St. Louis was another low point of the season for the Rangers as they were outscored 18-2.
Texas is off on Monday before welcoming the third place Boston Red Sox to Arlington as they kick off a six-game homestand that begins the season’s stretch run. Following that, a very pivotal series against the Houston Astros awaits.
For now, the Rangers are still in hope mode, waiting to come out of their season-long stupor but now with much less time to do so and with no more failsafes left to cling to.
Do you agree with the Rangers for not selling at the trade deadline? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.
