Rangers in need of turnaround after rough road trip out West

A flock of seagulls swarmed Oakland Coliseum late Wednesday afternoon, swooping down into the empty stands to scavenge on the remnants left from the game that had come to a merciful end an hour before.

The Texas Rangers finished their first road trip of 2017 with a 9-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics. They went 3-6 on the trip and the eight-run loss on Wednesday was their most lopsided of the season. Their 5-10 start is their worst since 2002, when they started 4-11 and lost 90 games.

Yes, this trip, the game was for the birds.

“I know we’re a better team than this,” First baseman Mike Napoli said. “It was rough. It’s not what we try to do on a road trip.”

The Rangers return to Globe Life Park for a four-game series against the Kansas City Royals beginning Thursday night. It’s the start of 10-game, 11-day homestand.

The Rangers can’t point their fingers at just one area of the club that needs improvement. Each area of the club has collapsed in their 10 losses — whether it was the bullpen, the defense, the offense, or in the case of Wednesday’s loss, the starting pitching.

The A’s jumped on Martin Perez for three doubles and a single to score four runs with two out in the first inning. To Perez’s credit, he rebounded to pitch into the fourth, but by then his pitch count was at 83 and Mike Hauschild replaced him with two outs in the inning. He didn’t fare well either. The A’s added five more runs on seven hits, including three homers, against Hauschild in  3 1/3 innings. Hauschild has allowed five homers in eight innings.

“Today was really the first time it got out of control early,” said Rangers manager Jeff Banister, who was ejected by home plate umpire Bill Welke in the third inning after an A’s hit over third base was ruled foul. “When we do start putting these things together the wins are going to be there for us and we’ll be able to shut games down and our offense will roll. We know we can put runs on the board. Our starters have done a good job up until today.”

The Rangers’ combined starting rotation ERA is 3.67, about in the middle of the American League. Only four teams in the majors have a worse combined bullpen ERA than the Rangers’ 5.89. The club’s fielding percentage (.980) is in the majors’ bottom third and only four teams have made more than their 11 errors.

Although the Rangers have scored an AL-leading 72 runs, many of their everyday offensive cornerstones are scuffling out of the gate. Carlos Gomez, Rougned Odor, Jonathan Lucroy and Napoli are hitting .203 or lower. Odor is 4 for 28 in the past six games with no RBIs and one run scored. Napoli is 3 for 26 with two RBIs in the past seven games.

“We have a few guys in the lineup who are grinding hard trying to get this thing going in the right direction,” Banister said. “It has been very challenging for us here early. I’ll remind everybody this is a very resilient group of guys who will find a way to put some wins on the board.”

The Rangers are hoping a return home will help them snap out of the early rough patch.

“I feel like we’ve been on the road for a month,” Catcher Robinson Chirinos said. “Everybody is excited to go home. Today is over. We’ll go out and do it tomorrow. We know we’re going to be okay. We have everything in this clubhouse to go deep this season.”

Napoli, of course, feels the same way.

“We’re going to be home for a long time and it should be a good time for us to get back on track,” he said. “It’s early, but we have to start doing the right things to win ball games. That’s everybody.”

This story was originally published April 19, 2017 at 7:38 PM with the headline "Rangers in need of turnaround after rough road trip out West."