Rangers Reaction: After Rays won't chase, Perez to check tip line

The one redeeming quality Tropicana Field has that no one can deny is that players know they will be playing every time they enter the building.

The same goes for Minute Maid Park, Safeco Field, Miller Park, Chase Field and Rogers Centre and will be the case in 2020 at Globe Life Field.

Barring something very extraordinary, that is, and that's what happened Monday in Canada.

The Toronto Blue Jays were forced to postpone their home game Monday against the Kansas City Royals as a chunk of ice fell from the very tall CN Tower and put a hole in the Rogers Centre roof.

How would you like to be the guy in charge of patching that one?

It's not the first time a roof error has led to a postponement and probably won't be the last. Surely something wonky will happen at the Texas Rangers' new home, right?

Despite the Toronto calamity, give me a roof any day.

Here's some Rangers Reaction from an 8-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.

1. The Martin Perez who brashly declared himself fit in spring training and proclaimed that he was going to give the Rangers what they have been patiently awaiting for years has gone AWOL.

He survived his opening start to help the Rangers get a win, despite allowing 10 hits in 5 1/3 innings. He has been highly ineffective in his past two starts, with the latest coming Monday.

He isn't still trying to recover from that broken right elbow or catch up on missed spring reps. He isn't frustrated, knowing that he overcame a lousy stretch last season to finish strong.

The same thing that kick-started his late run might be what helps him turn around his early-season woes.

Perez and catcher Robinson Chirinos are concerned that Perez was tipping his off-speed pitches as Rays hitters time and time again failed to chase pitches that ordinarily produce swings and misses. Perez allowed eight runs on 10 hits in four innings.

As was the case last season, when a bad start at Minnesota sent Perez back to the drawing board, Perez plans to hit the video Tuesday morning to see whether he can find anything that might have told the Rays when a slider was coming.

"I was frustrated sometimes because you know you throw a good pitch for a swing and miss and they don't do it," Perez said. "I'm not an excuse guy. I need to give credit to the hitters.

"I've been in this situation before, last year. I just have to find a way to pitch well again. I'm going to fight and find a way. I was throwing nasty pitches with two strikes, and they took them. Maybe I'm doing something with the fastball that I don't do with my breaking pitch."

Rangers coaches were dubious of Perez's claims last year that he discovered he was tipping, but Perez believed it and believes that's what cured him. He changed where he puts his hands at the start of his delivery, which also helped him find the rhythm he had when he has been at his best.

He knows whatever is wrong needs to be rectified. He has some time with Doug Fister out and with the Rangers still giving Mike Minor an extra day between starts.

But if Bartolo Colon continues to pitch well, the Rangers would be hard-pressed to put him back in the swing-man role. Someone would lose starts. If Perez still hasn't figured things out, it could be him.

2. So maybe it wasn't just the ace-caliber Astros trio that tied up Rangers hitters. Blake Snell, a young power pitcher who the Rays hope becomes their next ace, had the Rangers in a bind again Monday.

The lefty struck out nine in 6 1/3 innings, and Rangers hitters struck out 11 more times as reliever Chih-Wei Hu added two in relief. That's four straight games in double figures.

In their defense, as Chirinos pointed out, the Rangers won two of those games. Also in their defense, as Chirinos did not point out, is that the lineup has some strikeout-prone hitters and some young hitters who are overmatched.

(As everyone should know by now, the Rangers accept the strikeouts their power hitters will amass. The trade-off is the kind of homers Joey Gallo and Nomar Mazara launched Monday. Gallo's 430-footer hit off the Trop's D ring and was the first Snell has ever surrendered to a lefty hitter.)

Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Ronald Guzman and Carlos Tocci, for instance, had never faced Justin Verlander before he did a number on them Sunday night. Drew Robinson, still with less than a half-season in the majors under his belt, struck out 12 times during an 0-for-14 stretch.

With a lineup featuring those inexperienced players plus newcomer Renato Nunez, the strikeouts might continue to pile up until they either make adjustments or are sent to the minors once injured players Delino DeShields and Rougned Odor return.

DeShields (broken left hamate bone) expects to be back next Monday. Robinson and Tocci are the most likely to lose a roster spot, and the Rangers are going to give Tocci consecutive starts to see whether his bat can be adequate enough to keep on the roster.

As a Rule 5 pick, he might stay on the roster anyway. That bat, though, currently is a liability.

3. The addition of Nunez, the waiver claim from Oakland, resulted in the end of Ryan Rua's trial as the regular left fielder. Going forward, it feels as if the best he will ever do with the Rangers is serve as a bench player.

For whatever reason, the talent the Rangers continue to see isn't translating. Manager Jeff Banister agreed that Rua might be putting too much pressure on himself. Rua knew before spring training ended this might be his last chance, and that comes with pressure.

While he appears to be a better outfielder than Nunez, Rua doesn't have the same power. A coveted A's prospect, Nunez was out of options and on rehab assignment when Oakland tried to sneak him through waivers.

The Rangers caught him, and there is a fear in Oakland that the A's have just lost a burgeoning power hitter just as they did when they traded away Nelson Cruz more than 10 years ago.

That's quite a leap, but it speaks to how highly regarded Nunez's pop is. As he is out of options, he's going to hang on to his Rangers roster spot indefinitely.

Rua will be out of options next season. That can work out for a player, as it did Jurickson Profar this season, or it can be a nonfactor. An out-of-options Cruz, for example, was designated for assignment by the Rangers after failing to make the team out of spring training in 2008.

He cleared waivers, went to Triple A, became the Babe Ruth of the Pacific Coast League, and the rest is history.

It seems unlikely that Nunez would clear waivers. Rua? Everyone might find out next year.

This story was originally published April 16, 2018 at 10:49 PM with the headline "Rangers Reaction: After Rays won't chase, Perez to check tip line."