ARLINGTON, Texas — While it might be tempting to give an A for effort to the Texas Rangers for “hanging in there” with the division leaders, style points don’t gain you any ground and when you get swept – as Texas did over the weekend to fall 8.5 games behind the Seattle Mariners – chances are, the effort wasn’t worth a passing grade regardless.
There’s still a little more than half the season remaining, so a healing Texas squad isn’t out of the race by a long shot, but that shot keeps looking longer and longer, especially with the distance between the Rangers and Mariners nearly doubling in the wrong direction in Seattle.
Game 69: Texas 2, Seattle 3 (W: Castillo, 6-7, L: Heaney, 2-8, Sv: Stanek, 6)
Game 70: Texas 5, Seattle 7 (W: Kirby, 6-5, L: Eovaldi, 3-3, Sv: Stanek, 7)
Game 71: Texas 0, Seattle 5 (W: Gilbert, 4-4, L: Dunning, 4-6)
Pop and Fizzle, Fizzle and Pop
The spotty, sporadic offense from the Rangers stayed with the club throughout this series, which proved inopportune. Following a two-run first inning against Seattle ace Luis Castillo in the opener to get things started on the right foot, Texas managed only two more hits throughout the next eight innings as the Mariners came back and found one more run than Texas’ two.
While the pitching from Andrew Heaney and Jose Urena was more than good enough to keep the Rangers in the game, the Rangers faced some expected good pitching from Seattle and were kept off the bases.
On Saturday, Texas scored just one run over the first eight innings before an attempted comeback in the ninth. On that day, Nathan Eovaldi was not at his sharpest, being pushed to 75 pitches over just three innings before a quick exit in just his third game back from returning from the injured list. Texas’ staff ace gave up four runs on four hits and an uncharacteristic four walks. Meanwhile, George Kirby and the Seattle bullpen held the Rangers to two walks and four very scattered hits over the first eight innings.
There were signs of life in the ninth inning, though, against Seattle reliever Eduard Bazardo. Texas, down 7-1 entering the final frame, was finally able to string together some hits and bring the deficit to 7-5 before the Mariners had to bring in Ryne Stanek to shut the door. Unfortunately for the Rangers, the five runs would be far and away their best output of this West Coast road trip and would have been enough to win either of the other two games in this series.
Burke’s recompense
Before Saturday’s game, Brock Burke was brought back to the active roster. After suffering a self-inflicted broken hand after a bad relief outing against the Houston Astros in mid-April, Burke had spent the last two months relearning the art of pitching. His efforts showed as he came on in relief of Eovaldi, throwing 2 ⅔ shutout innings of work, allowing just one walk while striking out four.
The Rangers’ bullpen outside of David Robertson, Jose Leclerc, Jose Urena and Kirby Yates has been a bit of a revolving door. Even after Burke’s outstanding effort, Jonathan Hernandez and Jesus Tinoco allowed the Mariners to pull away with the game by giving up three runs over their combined 2 1⁄3 innings.
Even so, Burke appears to have learned to mix his pitches better, going away from his fastball being a predictable pitch to working in more sliders and changeups. Now he’ll have to show that he can do it consistently while avoiding punchable doors.
Seager shut out
While Corey Seager's returning to the field was a positive step for the franchise shortstop following a handful of days on the bench with a sore hamstring, the offensive output that came along with his return was highly uncharacteristic.
After homering to win a game for Texas in the series to open the road trip in Los Angeles, Seager drew one walk over the course of the series in Seattle which amounted to the entirety of his contributions. And, as we’ve seen when Seager doesn't impact the game with his bat, the Rangers aren’t scoring.
Seager’s numbers against the team his brother used to play for aren’t especially great, but it was certainly an odd sight to see him go hitless three games in a row. Then again, the Rangers’ offense didn’t do much of anything all weekend, especially in the finale, when they could only muster two hits total against Seattle in a shutout defeat.
Execution when it counts
The offense wasn’t putting runs on the board as it hasn’t for months, but even the pitching which has propped up the team during these fallow times did the team no favors by failing to execute when it mattered most.
Against a team that has had an even worse time scoring consistently than Texas, the Rangers allowed nine runs, thirteen hits, ten walks and three wild pitches with two out throughout the series.
The walks, which will always drive up pitch counts and give the opposition free opportunities to gain bases, have been a problem for the rotation all year long. Once a strikeout-heavy rotation, Texas now sits below the median line in the Majors in strikeouts, while allowing the fifth most walks in the American League. With two outs, the Rangers pitching staff as a whole has given up the third most walks in the AL.\
What had the makings of a promising West Coast road trip careened quite quickly. The Mariners, now with an 8.5-game lead over the Rangers, have the American League’s largest divisional lead. As the NL East’s New York Mets come to town, there is something else to consider – the Astros are just a half-game behind Texas.
Do you think the Rangers will be able to recover from the Seattle sweep? Share your thoughts with Matt on Twitter @FisherWritesMLB.