Rangers pitchers let Red Sox walk all over them

No one is ever going to confuse anyone in the Texas Rangers’ rotation for Greg Maddux, the preeminent strike-thrower of the past 30 years.

Of late, though, the Rangers’ rotation had been a little less generous. Take Andrew Cashner, who had allowed only one walk in each of his past two starts after 19 in his first five.

The right-hander reverted to his early-season form Tuesday night, and the first two relievers after him got carried away with the free passes in the sixth inning en route to an 11-6 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

Cashner walked four and allowed five runs in five innings in his shakiest start of the season while Dario Alvarez and Jeremy Jeffress combined for four two-out walks in Boston’s four-run sixth as the Red Sox pulled away to a 9-3 lead.

The Rangers’ offense kept things unsettled, with 13 hits and Joey Gallo’s 14th homer of the season, but the hitters’ efforts were wasted by the walkfest.

“That’s been a nemesis from time to time this year,” manager Jeff Banister said. “It’s the freebies that showed up tonight that got us in trouble.”

Only three of the walks came around to score, though collectively the eight walks gave the Red Sox’s best hitters extra at-bats and forced the Rangers to go to the bullpen earlier than desired.

They also allowed two runs on wild pitches and another on a balk.

Walks were the main issue for the Rangers’ pitching staff as a whole earlier in the season. The rotation wasn’t immune, though they managed to limit the damage en route to one of the game’s finest rotation ERAs, and the starters have been better of late.

But walks contributed to Yu Darvish’s short outing Sunday, albeit a winning outing. Walks had been biting Martin Perez until a throw-more-strikes alarm clock went off three starts ago. He tries to make it four Wednesday.

Cashner took a step back against Boston, which took two walks in the second en route to the game’s first run and two more in their three-run fifth that broke a 2-2 tie. A handful of calls didn’t go Cashner’s way, which he felt — without saying so — contributed to his woes.

“Those things are out of my control,” he said.

Cashner (1-4) had survived early walk-heavy starts by inducing double plays behind them. Twice he got grounders following walks, but the Rangers were unable to turn two either time.

The Red Sox started to create some cushion in the fifth, which started with two singles and a walk before Xander Bogaerts drove in two with a single. Two batters after another walk filled the bases again, former Rangers first baseman Mitch Moreland lifted a sacrifice fly for a 5-2 lead.

It was 5-3 in the Red Sox’s sixth when Dario Alvarez issued a two-out walk to No. 9 hitter Deven Marrero, who entered the game batting .139. Manager Jeff Banister summoned Jeffress, who has struggled of late, and he allowed a walk and back-to-back doubles to make it 8-3.

Bogaerts followed with an RBI single, and Jeffress walked two more (one intentionally) before Moreland struck out to end the inning.

Jeffress, acquired last year along with Jonathan Lucroy at the trade deadline, has issued 11 walks in  17 1/3 innings this season.

“He’s had some really dynamic outings for us, and then he’s had some outings get away from him,” Banister said. “When he gets out of his delivery, the fastball he seems to not be able to get in the strike zone. He seemed to leak a little tonight with his delivery and couldn’t get back into it.”

The offense kept plugging away, and their seventh inning was cut short when instant replay upheld an out call on Nomar Mazara at home as he tried to score on a Lucroy double.

Mazara was one of four players with two hits. Gallo was another, with a third-inning double and an eighth-inning solo shot to right field.

This story was originally published May 23, 2017 at 10:40 PM with the headline "Rangers pitchers let Red Sox walk all over them."